April 14, 2025

Commerce Committee      
Louisiana House of Representatives
900 North 3rd Street
P.O. Box 94062
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804

Dear Representative,

The House Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on HB 305 on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.  On behalf of the 2,863 members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) in Louisiana, I urge you to oppose this legislation, which would establish duplicative and unfair regulations by giving the Public Service Commission (PSC) new authority over broadband service providers that receive federal funding.  HB 305 would increase costs, delay deployment, and tilt the broadband deployment playing field toward government-owned networks.

Louisiana has approximately 296,777 unserved locations and will receive $1.36 million from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, equal to $4,567.59 per unserved location in the state.  The BEAD money is in addition to the $342 million award on December 7, 2020, from the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.  These programs, along with the funding received from the Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF), are subject to oversight by ConnectLA and the grant-making federal agencies.  Oversight by the PSC is unnecessary and would delay deployment to unserved locations in the state. 

HB 305 applies only to private sector providers and exempts government-owned or municipal-owned broadband networks.  Those networks have a history of failure and wasteful spending. 

I once again urge you to oppose HB 305.  However, if the Commerce Committee determines that it will move forward with the legislation, it should be amended to include all broadband providers without exception.

Sincerely,
Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW