H10 - Require ICE Cooperation & Budget Adjustments. (SL 2024-55)

Overview: Section 10.2 of House Bill 10 would make various changes to the laws that relate to broadband deployment and the Department of Information Technology (DIT), which include:

• Establishing the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Fund (GREAT 3.0 Fund), as a special revenue fund in DIT, to pay for infrastructure costs of projects designed to extend broadband service to unserved and underserved areas and to community anchor institutions.
• Directing the Broadband Infrastructure Office in DIT to implement a competitive subgrantee selection process in conformance with the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58).
• Requiring DIT to submit annual and periodic reports concerning the implementation of the GREAT 3.0 Program to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology and the Fiscal Research Division.
• Appropriating to DIT up to $23 million in federal funds received for digital literacy from the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58), to be used in accordance with the North Carolina Digital Equity Plan.
• Eliminating the sunset provision for the Broadband Pole Replacement Program, which is set to expire on December 31, 2024.

House Bill 10 was ratified by the General Assembly on September 11, 2024, and vetoed by the Governor on September 20, 2024.