A bill from Washington 17th District State Rep. Kevin Waters that would further the effort to expand rural broadband in Washington received a hearing in the House Innovation, Community and Economic Development, and Veterans Committee.  House Bill 1982 would codify the Community Economic Revitalization Board Rural Broadband program.  Waters is a member of the CERB board.  Since 2018, CERB has operated a Rural Broadband Program with funding from the capital budget, which provides grants and loans to local governments and federally recognized tribes.  The program finances the cost to build infrastructure to provide high-speed, open-access broadband service to rural and underserved communities for the purposes of economic development or community development.