Congress funds rural broadband access through tax credits for equipment.
H.R. 1020 — BOOST Act · Filed by John Moolenaar (R-MI) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a one-time federal tax credit allowing individuals in rural or underserved areas to claim back 75% of up to $400 spent on broadband signal boosters, satellite equipment, or related devices for their home—capping the credit at $300 per person. The credit expires after 2029 and can only be claimed once per taxpayer.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a direct refundable tax credit to individual taxpayers for broadband infrastructure purchases in underserved areas. This is a targeted subsidy aimed at closing a rural connectivity gap, not a deregulation, immunity grant, or corporate carve-out.
What the text implies
- The credit is capped at $300 per person and available only once, limiting total federal outlay but also limiting impact for households needing multiple devices or upgrades.
- Eligibility is tied to FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund phase 1/2 designations, which may lag behind actual broadband availability and exclude some underserved areas not yet mapped by the FCC.
- The bill requires voluntary reporting by equipment sellers to the IRS, creating a new compliance burden on retailers without explicit enforcement mechanism or penalty structure.
- Satellite equipment and ground station equipment are included, potentially benefiting satellite internet providers (Starlink, Viasat) indirectly by lowering customer acquisition costs in rural markets.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directly subsidizes broadband access for underserved rural households through a refundable tax credit, lowering the out-of-pocket cost of connectivity infrastructure. The benefit flows to individual taxpayers in genuinely underserved areas (as defined by FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund eligibility), with no apparent capture by intermediaries or private companies.
Who stands to gain
- Rural households in underserved areas (primary beneficiary)
- Satellite internet service providers (indirect benefit via lower customer equipment costs)
- Broadband equipment manufacturers and retailers
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, Starlink, Viasat, broadband equipment manufacturers
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Feb 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $320,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
John Moolenaar, the sponsor, reported $595,100 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Competitive Carriers Association — $320,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,567 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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