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Committee advances SB 80 to speed broadband reimbursements, allow larger admin fees
Summary
The Senate Commerce Committee reported SB 80 with amendments after testimonies from the State Broadband Director requesting (1) expanded administrative fee authority, (2) relaxed statutory reimbursement thresholds to avoid contractor cash‑flow gaps, and (3) procurement alignment with federal agencies to accelerate spending of the Gumbo 1 grant.
The Senate Committee on Commerce on March 18 reported SB 80 with amendments after hearing from Vinny Thyanger, the state's broadband director, who urged changes to help the state deploy federal broadband funds more quickly and avoid contractor cash‑flow problems.
"The Gumbo 1 program, just to recall, is $176,000,000. We have to spend all those dollars in the next 10 months," Thyanger told the committee, laying out three main requests: a larger administrative fee pool to hire staff and expand contractor task orders, removal of strict statutory reimbursement thresholds that can block payments when audits show slightly lower completion percentages, and procurement language aligned to U.S. Treasury and Department of Commerce requirements.
Thyanger said the office uses a multi‑step verification before reimbursement: a technical auditor visits the site, the office conducts a compliance audit, an internal audit follows and then the U.S. Treasury validates findings "Only then, once that happens, we will then issue a reimbursement payment for these companies," he said.
Committee members pressed for detail on fiscal and staffing impacts. Senator Abraham asked about the dollar impact of the proposed fee change; staff explained that increasing the admin fee authority would free up an additional approximately $3.5 million in federal administrative capacity. Senator Connick asked about the fiscal note and line items; Thyanger said the office's administrative cost estimate includes salaries for three staff and contractor/auditor expenses and that approximately $99,000,000 remained to be spent from Gumbo 1.
Thyanger acknowledged civil‑service limits on salaries but said the requested flexibility would let the office increase task orders for existing contractors (e.g., Square Button and EisnerAmper) to speed field audits and compliance work rather than run new solicitation cycles.
After discussion, the committee adopted amendment set 6‑97 (which removed a provision giving oversight/enforcement authority to the Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity) and reported SB 80 with the amendments. The committee recorded no roll‑call objections during the meeting.
