Rep. Constance A. Howard

Filed: 4/11/2005

 

 


 

 


 
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1
AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 3650

2     AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 3650, AS AMENDED, by
3 replacing everything after the enacting clause with the
4 following:
 
5     "Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
6 Integrated Telecommunications Outreach, Outcomes, Planning,
7 and Digital Literacy Act.
 
8     Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds that the
9 following needs are essential to statewide telecommunications
10 technological infrastructure:
11     (1) The need for affordable telephone and Internet
12 connections for all Illinoisans. The daily convenience and
13 necessity of residents, businesses, community institutions,
14 and enterprises calls for cooperation by all to facilitate a
15 range of telephone and telecommunication services that enable
16 all persons, enterprises, and institutions to connect with each
17 other for the basic purposes of life, safety, health, and
18 productive activity and for the purpose of getting Illinois
19 online in convenient and affordable advanced communication and
20 broadband as a linked, digitally literate set of regions that
21 are competitive in our world today.
22     (2) The need for digital literacy and technological skills
23 to use Internet tools and improve citizen productivity. The
24 safety, health, and social cohesion of all individuals,

 

 

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1 families, and communities in Illinois, as well as the speed of
2 expansion of voice, data, and visual communication services in
3 many modes calls for multiyear cooperation for systematic
4 outreach to all Illinois residents to understand their
5 telephone and telecommunications options, availability, costs,
6 guarantees, and qualities of service, including advertisement
7 of choices and the availability of consumer protection, the
8 development of means for systematic feedback about the quality
9 of service and its impacts on many kinds of customers, and for
10 the purpose of sustaining systematic means for user-friendly
11 ways to continually advance digital literacy to use the
12 increasingly complex electronic and telephone-linked tools
13 that are new necessities of life both for average residents and
14 for residents who may be without the stability and resources of
15 daily access to full phone service.
16     (3) The need for assistance in providing personal
17 information and content management tools for average
18 residents. The volume of telephone and
19 telecommunications-based personal and mass communication calls
20 for designing telephone and telecommunications choices to
21 enable all residents, enterprises, and institutions to manage
22 and have privacy in communication through consumer service
23 tools provided by many public, private, and community
24 providers, as they communicate with each other for basic
25 purposes of life, liberty, and happiness, such as statewide
26 consumer and business application tools, which include using
27 telephone and telecommunications tools for more advanced
28 purposes of connecting with the Internet online services for
29 public services, schools and learning, health care, cultural
30 and community arts, employment, economic opportunity,
31 commercial and consumer purchasing, and transportation and
32 local access places in their community dialogs and planning.
33     (4) The need for cooperative local, regional, and Statewide
34 planning for basic telecommunications and broadband extension

 

 

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1 to all Illinois citizens. The many kinds and levels of basic
2 and advanced services and the integration of provision by
3 converging modes of wireline, cable, wireless satellite,
4 wireless towers, wireless locations, utility lines, and voice
5 over Internet, and information kiosk web services, call for
6 statewide cooperation in better data collection and sharing.
7 This includes data about current and newly emerging
8 availability, choices, and costs of basic and advanced
9 telephone and telecommunications and evaluation of service
10 quality and use and for transition to new baseline levels of
11 broadband for daily use.
12     (5) The need for assistance to residents with special basic
13 telecommunication and assistive technology needs. There are
14 social needs for better information by many kinds of consumers
15 who have limited telephone and telecommunications choices,
16 including needs to understand special programs for basic life
17 connections and assistive services, as well as opportunities to
18 benefit from stable telecommunications addresses and special
19 service designated for universal service connectivity and
20 adaptive connections, regardless of visual, hearing, physical,
21 or developmental condition.
22     (6) The need for better public access to telecommunications
23 services. There are needs for all consumers to better
24 understand how to use public access information services,
25 including call-in and call-out services of 911, use of 411
26 personal services and electronic directory assistance, 311
27 local government information, and new 211 public and community
28 human services.
29     (7) The need for better cooperation among local, county,
30 regional, and Statewide telecommunications planning and
31 outcomes tracking. There are needs for local, county, and
32 statewide public officials and planning bodies to have better
33 information on telephone and telecommunications capacity and
34 usage and digital and technological skills in order to

 

 

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1 undertake multi-year plans and public infrastructure
2 investments, to communicate the telecommunications readiness
3 of particular facilities or areas, and reduce the costs to
4 local taxpayers for basic infrastructure, as well as for
5 emergency safety and core health connections services, which
6 often require advanced telecommunications for life supporting
7 uses and greatest savings in public and resident costs and
8 efficiencies in network usage
9     (8) The need for lesser connected residents to maintain
10 access and technological skills at home, at work, and in public
11 settings in order for Illinois to compete in the world
12 marketplace. There are needs for all Illinois residents, and
13 especially residents with less than average resources or in
14 lesser connected communities or with special needs, to gain and
15 maintain technological and digital literacy skills to use basic
16 and advanced telecommunications in homes, at work, in schools,
17 libraries, community centers, and health care facilities, and
18 in public agencies and in settings, including at public and
19 commercial information kiosks or information ATM machines;
20 including the need to systematically increase the
21 telecommunications use capacity of the Illinois workforce to
22 reduce unemployment and underemployment in Illinois, which
23 continues at substantially higher levels than national
24 averages and which lags in terms of hiring for professional,
25 technical, and entry-level employment in the face of regional
26 and worldwide trends and models of success.
27     (9) The need for cooperation among State agencies
28 concerning telecommunications access and technological skills
29 programs to increase stakeholder investments from public and
30 private parties. There are needs for cooperation among many
31 State agencies, including cooperation among the Department of
32 Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Illinois Commerce
33 Commission, and the many programs that have responsibility for
34 outreach concerning skill building, public benefit access,

 

 

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1 literacy, communication, and library networks, and community
2 quality of life planning and implementation.
3     (10) The need for a public-private coordinating committee
4 to work with the Department of Commerce and Economic
5 Opportunity and its Advisory Committee on Elimination of the
6 Digital Divide to integrate outreach and multi-year
7 sustainable approaches. Coordinating and cooperating parties
8 need to include telecommunications providers,
9 telecommunications-related technology product and service
10 providers, community technology providers, consumer interest
11 and economic development and health and safety organizations,
12 community service and research programs of institutions of
13 higher education and community service and technological
14 skills programs of elementary and secondary education, public
15 agencies and local and regional planning bodies in all regions
16 of the State, and other State and federal agencies and offices
17 to assist in enabling all interested parties in participating
18 in outreach, outcomes, planning, and digital literacy
19 activities, in identifying appropriate sources of revenues for
20 specific programs, and in developing new sources of endowment
21 or program matching funds, including through programs and
22 partnerships to share information about the synergies and
23 shared data and outcomes information on Digital Literacy and
24 Technology Access programs for underserved areas and
25 populations in the State.
 
26     Section 10. Telecommunications outreach cooperation.
27 Subject to appropriation, the Department of Commerce and
28 Economic Opportunity, as part of the Director's responsibility
29 for regional planning, technology, industrial competitiveness,
30 and workforce skills, for electronic product life cycle
31 enterprises, and for communication with telecommunications
32 carriers and others in relation to the Eliminate the Digital
33 Divide Law, shall establish a telecommunications outreach

 

 

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1 program within the Division of Technology and Industrial
2 Competitiveness, in consultation with the Illinois Commerce
3 Commission. The telecommunications outreach program shall do
4 all of the following:
5         (1) Convene a working group of all public agencies,
6     telecommunications providers, and community and consumer
7     enterprises or institutions that have substantial outreach
8     programs concerning educating residents, especially
9     low-income, less connected, and special needs residents,
10     to catalog telecommunications outreach and marketing
11     programs, audiences, communication processes, and
12     potential means of cooperation.
13         (2) Undertake an expanded outreach and marketing
14     process among telecommunications providers and others to
15     secure contributions to the Eliminate the Digital Divide
16     Trust Program, in order to highlight the locations of
17     public access community technology centers and services,
18     linked with all State departments and offices, and to
19     encourage the acquisition and maintenance of basic and more
20     advanced technological and digital literacy skills linked
21     with Internet and other telecommunications in underserved
22     communities.
23         (3) Establish and undertake a program of outreach to
24     implement a Good Samaritan Computer program to solicit
25     voluntary contributions to assist low-income individuals
26     and families in purchasing, using, and maintaining
27     computers and internet connects, coordinated with other
28     outreach and solicitation programs for individual
29     contributions.
30         (4) Establish among parties participating under this
31     Section and other Sections established in this Act, a
32     public-private coordinating committee with responsibility
33     to help identify and secure multi-year investment or
34     endowment funds and program funds, including through

 

 

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1     federal, national, and international programs, including
2     through cooperative outreach programs and through
3     matching, formal or informal partnerships or cooperation,
4     including tracking outcomes and research data, through an
5     annual review of achievements of programs of the Department
6     and others, through opportunities for local access plans in
7     all communities to participate, and other means to expand
8     digital literacy and technology access through an
9     Eliminate the Digital Divide Community Trust process or
10     future structure as a local-State stakeholder community to
11     assist in improving the quality of lives and strengthening
12     the family and social networks of low income and other
13     lesser connected residents and entities.
 
14     Section 15. Telephone and telecommunications service
15 outcomes, data sharing, and planning. Subject to
16 appropriation, the Department of Commerce and Economic
17 Opportunity, in cooperation with the Illinois Commerce
18 Commission and the Illinois Attorney General, shall establish a
19 Telecommunications Service Outcomes, Data Sharing, and Local
20 Planning program. The program shall:
21         (1) Convene a local-State-federal telecommunications
22     cooperative data collection and sharing working group to
23     make recommendations on State-federal cooperation,
24     including basic and broadband telecommunications data from
25     FCC form 477, to assist decision-makers, planners, and
26     consumer protection parties at the State and local levels
27     to gain better data to make decisions concerning all modes
28     of telecommunications and information infrastructure,
29     including homeland security standards.
30         (2) Establish and undertake a regional-local
31     telecommunications planning process in cooperation with 7
32     to 10 regional telecommunications service planning areas
33     in Illinois, regional planning councils and their member

 

 

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1     public officials, other parties within multi-county areas,
2     nonprofit community development, technology and media
3     networks, and telecommunications consumer groups in these
4     regions, along the lines of using an RFP process to provide
5     grants to community telecommunications planning
6     facilitators.
7         (3) Establish and undertake special community
8     telecommunication local access planning for sustainability
9     process for community-based collaboratives or consortia,
10     with grant funding available from Department programs,
11     from public-private partnerships, or from the Eliminate
12     the Digital Divide Program or a combination of sources,
13     plan for programs that assist low income families to secure
14     loans and access to special discount programs of electronic
15     product companies, and plan for electronic product
16     recovery and recycling programs and enterprises.
17         (4) Undertake demonstration telephone and
18     telecommunications quality of service feedback assemblies
19     in a number of local access places in areas of 5,000 up to
20     60,000 residents in each telecommunications service
21     region, with an initial focus on low-income or otherwise
22     lesser connected communities, with a purpose of bringing
23     together a cross-section of consumers of all modes of
24     telecommunications to provide systematic feedback on top
25     priorities for telecommunications infrastructure or
26     services to improve the quality of families and
27     communities, and specific improvements in the quality,
28     availability, costs, and information about each
29     telecommunications provider or service. The assemblies
30     shall be hosted by non-profit, educational, community, or
31     public agencies or enterprises, or consortia of those
32     entities, that are not substantial providers of
33     telecommunications services and that shall work closely
34     with regional planning councils and related community

 

 

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1     development and consumer services networks in the area.
 
2     Section 20. Technological literacy trust grants and
3 outcome tracking initiative. Subject to appropriation, the
4 Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall
5 establish an Eliminate the Digital Divide Community Trust
6 Program as a continuation and expansion of the Eliminate the
7 Digital Divide grant program, in cooperation with other State
8 agencies, community technology and community development
9 networks, consumer representatives, education and higher
10 education agencies and extension services, regional planning
11 councils, local public agency officials, and public,
12 nonprofit, and business institutions or enterprises that
13 provide grants and other resources for telephone,
14 telecommunications and related quality of life services,
15 training, or infrastructure and in consultation with the
16 advisory committee on elimination of the digital divide. The
17 Trust Program may receive voluntary contributions directly
18 from members of the public, including any entity, and from the
19 voluntary contribution programs of telecommunications
20 providers authorized under the Eliminate the Digital Divide
21 Law.
22     The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall
23 do all of the following:
24         (1) Provide "Train the Trainer" grants, other
25     professional development grants, and evaluation-linked
26     grants to determine the outcomes and the impacts of digital
27     literacy and technology access programs of the Department
28     of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and other State
29     agencies and significant regional or statewide programs to
30     entities or consortia that are region-based,
31     circuit-based, or statewide-based community technology
32     centers or networks that participate in the broadly-based
33     annual Telecommunications Conference on Economic

 

 

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1     Development and telehealth sponsored by the University of
2     Illinois extension program and others.
3         (2) Provide "Community Innovation" grants of between
4     $5,000 to $50,000 to nonprofit community-based
5     organizations to demonstrate innovative means to host
6     consumer and community feedback activities on the impact of
7     telecommunication access and technological skills on
8     quality of life, including assemblies in local access
9     places, in low-income areas and other underserved
10     populations and communities with special and assistive
11     needs, and for purposes of developing community
12     telecommunication plans, or community technology center or
13     consortia sustainability plans, to extend access and
14     skills, including in homes, work locations, community
15     technology centers, and public settings, including
16     information kiosks, and including through innovative
17     job-producing and revenue-generating community
18     enterprises, including in the expanding areas of
19     processing, demanufacturing and distribution of used
20     technologies, undertaking electronic product recycling
21     activities, and the development and distribution of
22     personal information and content management tools and
23     information ATM cards in the community, either directly or
24     through statewide or regional circuit consortia with
25     substantial experience in assisting such organizations.
26         (3) In consultation with the Advisory Committee on
27     Elimination of the Digital Divide, provide "Family and
28     Social Network Strengthening" grants of an amount to be
29     determined to innovative organizations or enterprises that
30     have the capacity to provide and sustain personal
31     information and content management tools and services,
32     including assistive technologies, e-mail and e-personal
33     applications at low-cost or no-cost to low-income and other
34     underserved families, individuals, and small businesses to

 

 

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1     enable them to acquire skills and develop and strengthen
2     links with ongoing consumer and small business services and
3     Community Technology Centers and other important work and
4     family support networks and with special focus on
5     regionwide and statewide sustainable networks and
6     services.
7         (4) Co-sponsor an annual statewide community
8     technology center professional development conference and
9     any regional professional development online resources and
10     calendar activities recommended by the advisory committee
11     on elimination of the digital divide.
12         (5) Convene a stakeholder conference on resources to
13     eliminate the digital divide and assist in planning for
14     statewide broadband extension, digital government, and
15     Illinois connection initiatives to support participation
16     by stakeholders in Eliminate the Digital Divide programs
17     and centers.
18         (6) Administer the resources in the current Eliminate
19     the Digital Divide grant program, with interest on funds in
20     the program to be used by the program and with funds
21     received by the program from contributions from residents
22     and stakeholders in digital literacy, including from
23     telecommunications formulaic or other contributions, not
24     subject to reduction or use by the general treasury
25     reduction or use by the general treasury and with authority
26     to make grants of up to $75,000 for technological skills
27     and telecommunication and technology access to Community
28     Technology Centers and to "Train the Trainer" grants
29     provided for in this Section and to enable Community
30     Technology Centers to assist participants in understanding
31     and using personal information and content management
32     tools as part of regular training and access services and
33     as a means to assist those Centers in developing on-going
34     services to participants and sources of earned revenue.

 

 

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1         (7) Prepare an annual report on Digital Literacy and
2     Technology and Telecommunication Access and their impact
3     on community and economic development in the State,
4     including a summary of outcomes and annual comparisons of
5     impacts of grants since the initial grants under the
6     Eliminate the Digital Divide Law, by February 1 of each
7     year.
8         (8) Propose a formal Eliminate the Digital Divide
9     Community Trust structure or entity involving
10     public-private-community partnership activity, in
11     consultation with coordinating and cooperating parties
12     involved with activities under this Act, that has the
13     capacity to bring resources from State and local agencies,
14     telecommunications providers, business and charitable
15     entities, and cooperation among those parties, including
16     opportunities to apply for federal and other public,
17     business, or charitable grants, funds, or revenue sources
18     and that may undertake activities on October 1, 2006 or
19     January 1, 2007.
 
20     Section 900. The Eliminate the Digital Divide Law is
21 amended by changing Section 5-30 as follows:
 
22     (30 ILCS 780/5-30)
23     Sec. 5-30. Community Technology Grant Program.
24     (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department shall
25 administer the Community Technology Center Grant Program under
26 which the Department shall make grants in accordance with this
27 Article for planning, establishment, administration, and
28 expansion of Community Technology Centers and for assisting
29 public hospitals, libraries, and park districts in eliminating
30 the digital divide. The purposes of the grants shall include,
31 but not be limited to, volunteer recruitment and management,
32 training and instruction, infrastructure, and related goods

 

 

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1 and services for Community Technology Centers and public
2 hospitals, libraries, and park districts. The total amount of
3 grants under this Section in fiscal year 2001 shall not exceed
4 $2,000,000, except that this limit on grants shall not apply to
5 grants funded by appropriations from the Digital Divide
6 Elimination Fund. No Community Technology Center may receive a
7 grant of more than $50,000 under this Section in a particular
8 fiscal year.
9     (b) Public hospitals, libraries, park districts, and State
10 educational agencies, local educational agencies, institutions
11 of higher education, and other public and private nonprofit or
12 for-profit agencies and organizations are eligible to receive
13 grants under this Program, provided that a local educational
14 agency or public or private educational agency or organization
15 must, in order to be eligible to receive grants under this
16 Program, provide computer access and educational services
17 using information technology to the public at one or more of
18 its educational buildings or facilities at least 12 hours each
19 week. A group of eligible entities is also eligible to receive
20 a grant if the group follows the procedures for group
21 applications in 34 CFR 75.127-129 of the Education Department
22 General Administrative Regulations.
23     To be eligible to apply for a grant, a Community Technology
24 Center, public hospital, library, or park district must serve a
25 community in which not less than 40% of the students are
26 eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the national
27 school lunch program or in which not less than 30% of the
28 students are eligible for a free lunch under the national
29 school lunch program; however, if funding is insufficient to
30 approve all grant applications for a particular fiscal year,
31 the Department may impose a higher minimum percentage threshold
32 for that fiscal year. Determinations of communities and
33 determinations of the percentage of students in a community who
34 are eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the

 

 

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1 national school lunch program shall be in accordance with rules
2 adopted by the Department.
3     Any entities that have received a Community Technology
4 Center grant under the federal Community Technology Centers
5 Program are also eligible to apply for grants under this
6 Program.
7     The Department shall provide assistance to Community
8 Technology Centers in making those determinations for purposes
9 of applying for grants.
10     (c) Grant applications shall be submitted to the Department
11 not later than March 15 for the next fiscal year.
12     (d) The Department shall adopt rules setting forth the
13 required form and contents of grant applications.
14     (e) There is created the Digital Divide Elimination
15 Advisory Committee. The advisory committee shall consist of 7 5
16 members appointed one each by the Governor, the President of
17 the Senate, the Senate Minority Leader, the Speaker of the
18 House, and the House Minority Leader, and 2 appointed by the
19 Director of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, one of whom
20 shall be a representative of the telecommunications industry
21 and one of whom shall represent community technology centers.
22 The members of the advisory committee shall receive no
23 compensation for their services as members of the advisory
24 committee but may be reimbursed for their actual expenses
25 incurred in serving on the advisory committee. The Digital
26 Divide Elimination Advisory Committee shall advise the
27 Department in establishing criteria and priorities for
28 identifying recipients of grants under this Act. The advisory
29 committee shall obtain advice from the technology industry
30 regarding current technological standards. The advisory
31 committee shall seek any available federal funding.
32     (f) There is created the Digital Divide Elimination Working
33 Group. The Working Group shall consist of the Director of
34 Commerce and Economic Opportunity, or his or her designee, the

 

 

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1 Director of Central Management Services, or his or her
2 designee, and the Executive Director of the Illinois Commerce
3 Commission, or his or her designee. The Director of Commerce
4 and Economic Opportunity, or his or her designee, shall serve
5 as chair of the Working Group. The Working Group shall consult
6 with the members of the Digital Divide Elimination Advisory
7 Committee and may consult with various groups including, but
8 not limited to, telecommunications providers,
9 telecommunications-related technology products and service
10 providers, community technology providers, community and
11 consumer organizations, businesses and business organizations,
12 literacy and technology access programs and agencies, and
13 federal government agencies.
14     (g) Duties of the Digital Divide Elimination Working Group
15 include all of the following:
16         (1) Undertaking a thorough review of grant, outreach,
17     and information programs available through the federal
18     government, local agencies, telecommunications providers,
19     and business and charitable entities for the purpose of
20     identifying appropriate sources of revenues for the
21     Digital Divide Elimination Fund and attempting to update
22     available grants on a regular basis.
23         (2) Researching and cataloging programs designed to
24     advance digital literacy and computer access that are
25     available through the federal government, local agencies,
26     telecommunications providers, and business and charitable
27     entities and attempting to update available programs on a
28     regular basis.
29         (3) Presenting the information compiled from items (1)
30     and (2) to the Department of Commerce and Economic
31     Opportunity, which shall serve as a single point of contact
32     for applying for funding for the Digital Divide Elimination
33     Fund and for distributing information to the public
34     regarding all programs designed to advance digital

 

 

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1     literacy and computer access.
2 (Source: P.A. 91-704, eff. 7-1-00; 92-22, eff. 6-30-01.)".