Energy and Commerce Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Latest action. Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 3.
Energy and Commerce Recovery and Reinvestment Act - Title I: Broadband Communications - (Sec. 1001) Requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to develop and maintain a map showing where broadband service is deployed and available in each state and to make such map publicly available.
(Sec. 1002) Provides for grants for wireless deployment and broadband deployment. Requires NTIA to develop and maintain a website to make publicly available information about such grants. Sets forth provisions concerning grant requirements, applications, and selection. Requires reports form the NTIA.
(Sec. 1003) Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on a national broadband plan.
Title II: Energy - (Sec. 2001) Makes technical corrections to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to: (1) revise fund allocations to states and local governmental units; and (2) repeal specified funding requirements.
(Sec. 2002) Directs the Secretary of Energy (Secretary in this title), when implementing smart grid regional demonstration initiatives, to provide financial support to projects in urban, suburban, and rural areas, including areas where electric system assets are controlled by tax-exempt entities (as under current law) and areas where electric system assets are controlled by investor-owned utilities.
Instructs the Secretary to: (1) establish a smart grid information clearinghouse to make data from projects and other sources available to the public; and (2) precondition funding upon utilization by such demonstration projects of available open Internet-based protocols and standards.
Extends the authorization of appropriations for the smart grid regional demonstration initiative indefinitely.
Increases from 20% to 50% the federal reimbursement match for qualifying smart grid investments under the Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program.
Repeals the requirement that, in making such grants, the Secretary seek to reward innovation and early adaptation, even if success is not complete, rather than deployment of proven and commercially viable technologies.
Revises the exclusion from qualifying smart grid investments of expenditures for technologies, devices, or equipment that are eligible for specific tax credits or deductions. Applies the exclusion only to technologies, devices, or equipment that utilize such tax credits or deductions.
The summary continues for 108 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House amended, Part I" stage on January 26, 2009. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 27, 2009: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 3.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
HENRY WAXMAN (D-CA) introduced it on January 22, 2009. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 22, 2009, 6440 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6435 days ago, on January 27, 2009.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers