Congress expands broadband funding to tribal lands and Native American communities
H.R. 6067 — Tribal Internet Expansion Act of 2025 · Filed by Raul Ruiz (D-CA) · Introduced Nov 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to expand the federal universal service principle—which currently requires affordable telecommunications access in rural, insular, and high-cost areas—to explicitly include Indian country and areas with high populations of Native Americans. The bill directs the FCC to treat tribal lands and Native American population centers the same way it treats other underserved regions when allocating universal service funds for broadband and phone service.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand eligibility for existing federal universal service funding to include tribal lands and Native American population centers. It is a straightforward amendment to clarify and broaden access to an established public-benefit program.
What the text implies
- The amendment depends on how the FCC interprets and implements the new eligibility criteria—funding levels and deployment timelines will be determined by agency rulemaking, not by this bill alone.
- The bill does not appropriate new money; it redirects existing universal service fund dollars. The total pool remains fixed, so expanding eligibility may dilute per-capita funding for other high-cost areas unless Congress increases appropriations.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
telecommunications carriers serving tribal lands; broadband infrastructure providers in Native American communities; tribal governments and tribal broadband authorities