# Internet Exchange Act of 2022: Plain Language Summary

This bill provides federal grants to help build and expand internet exchange facilities in areas that don't have them or have very few. Think of an internet exchange facility as a physical meeting place where different internet service providers and companies that deliver online content connect their networks to each other. When these networks can exchange data directly at a local facility instead of routing traffic through distant servers, internet speeds improve and costs go down for everyone using the internet in that area.

The bill directs the federal government to offer grants covering up to 50 percent of the costs to either build a brand new internet exchange facility in a metropolitan or micropolitan area that has none, or to expand an existing one in an area that only has a single facility. To qualify for a grant, the organization applying must prove that internet service providers and content companies in the area actually want to use the facility once it's built. The government will establish application rules within a year and hire an independent reviewer to check applications and prevent fraud. Importantly, the government won't regulate how these facilities operate—it's just providing the money to get them built.

The bill also allows schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities that receive federal internet subsidies (known as E-Rate and Rural Health Care support) to use those funds to connect to internet exchange facilities or maintain a presence there. This means schools and hospitals in underserved areas could potentially get better internet speeds and reliability using money they already receive. The bill doesn't create any new federal spending—it uses existing budget authority, so there's no new tax dollars required to fund the grants.

Internet Exchange Act of 2022

Long, Billy

Internet Exchange Act of 2022 This bill creates a grant program for the establishment and expansion of facilities through which internet service providers and content delivery networks exchange internet traffic (internet exchange facilities) in unserved or underserved areas. Further, the bill allows recipients of funding from the E-Rate Program and the Rural Health Care Program to apply such funds to the procurement or maintenance of a connection to an internet exchange facility.