HUD published its broadband and natural-hazard planning rule on December 16, 2016. The rule specified January 17, 2017 as its effective date, but its new assessments apply to consolidated plans submitted on or after January 1, 2018. This December 18 weekend account examines those provisions retrospectively; it does not describe a new Sunday decision. [2016-30421][2016-11350]

A consolidated plan organizes a jurisdiction's housing and community-development priorities for HUD formula funding. The final rule added analysis of broadband needs in housing occupied by low- and moderate-income households and their vulnerability to increased natural-hazard risks associated with climate change. It did not order every jurisdiction to install broadband or undertake a particular protective construction project. [2016-30421][2016-11350]

The May 18 proposal explains the contemplated evidence base. It pointed to available federal data and other analyses, including state, tribal and local hazard-mitigation plans approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The final regulatory text instead lets jurisdictions identify the data, findings and methods for their assessments. Historical examples in the proposal are not an exclusive final sourcing requirement. [2016-30421][2016-11350]

This distinction separates an obligation to examine a problem from a prescribed remedy. HUD left jurisdictions to decide how to spend their funds, even when the required analysis reveals needs. The two documents are successive stages of one rulemaking, not independent reports of better connectivity or reduced losses. To understand the change, look for the new assessment in a covered plan, rather than assume the effective date marks completion of infrastructure. [2016-30421][2016-11350]

Source documents

  1. Modernizing HUD's Consolidated Planning Process To Narrow the Digital Divide and Increase Resilience to Natural Hazardshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-16/html/2016-30421.htm
  2. Modernizing HUD's Consolidated Planning Process To Narrow the Digital Divide and Increase Resilience to Natural Hazardshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-05-18/html/2016-11350.htm