This bill reenacts and amends RCW 43.330.530 and makes related amendments to several sections (including RCW 43.330.532, 43.330.534, 43.330.539, 43.330.5395, and RCW 43.330.412). It establishes the governor’s statewide broadband office (RCW 43.330.532) whose director is to be appointed by the governor, specifies the office’s powers and duties as the state’s central broadband planning body, and sets or updates definitions used across the cited sections. The broadband definition is codified to require minimum speeds of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload and the office may not set a lower minimum. The office may hire staff subject to available appropriations, seek federal and other funding, accept donations (to be deposited into the statewide broadband account or the digital equity account as appropriate), coordinate outreach to hard‑to‑reach and low‑income communities (including requesting providers’ three lowest cost retail tiers and prioritizing translations), and encourage public‑private partnerships. One outreach sentence is truncated in the provided text, so the intended completion of that provision is not available here. The bill creates and defines roles for a Washington digital equity forum and requires the statewide broadband office, in consultation with the forum and multiple state agencies and tribes, to develop, implement, monitor, and report on a state digital equity plan. The office must identify measurable objectives, may seek funding to implement the plan, and must submit a report to the governor and appropriate legislative committees by January 1, 2027 and every two years thereafter; the state digital equity plan must be submitted by January 1, 2029 (based on a referenced 2024 plan) and updated before subsequent reports. The forum’s functions, appointment process, meeting reimbursement and possible stipends, and schedule for transmitting recommendations to the legislature are set out in the text provided, but the statutory details establishing the forum’s composition or its formal statutory creation are not fully included in the extracted material. The bill creates a digital opportunity program to advance broadband adoption and digital equity, to be administered by “the department” (the specific department name is not identified in the provided excerpts). The director (unspecified agency) must establish a competitive grant program with eligible applicants limited to nonprofit entities or public entities partnering with nonprofits and must set eligibility, selection criteria, and expected outcomes. Program activities described include training and skill building, access to hardware and software, small‑scale connectivity projects, cybersecurity training, digital navigators and technical support, locally relevant content and services, and digital/AI literacy; the list is cut off in places so the full scope is not shown. Funding rules in the provided text cap administrative expenses at 10 percent of program funds and limit certain organizational and capacity‑building expenditures to 15 percent; grant recipients must provide annual accounting of outcomes. The text requires the director to share draft guidelines with the digital equity forum and the department’s contracts and compliance division for review, but the identity of “the department,” some implementation details, and several provisions referenced elsewhere in the amended RCWs are not present in the extracted facts.

If enacted, the bill creates a stronger centralized broadband office led by a governor‑appointed director who will set and update statewide goals (including a minimum broadband standard of at least 100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up), coordinate planning with tribes and many state and local agencies, and run outreach to low‑income and hard‑to‑reach communities with translated materials and price information from providers. Broadband providers will be asked to report their three lowest retail tiers, grant and loan applicants will get assistance seeking federal matching funds, and the office may accept federal grants and donations to be deposited into designated state accounts; staffing and most program activity depend on money appropriated by the Legislature, so new funding will likely be needed and providers and local partners may face added reporting or coordination work. The bill also establishes a Washington digital equity forum and a digital opportunity program (administered by an unspecified department) to award competitive grants to nonprofits and public entities partnering with nonprofits for digital skills, hardware, small connectivity projects, cybersecurity, digital navigators, and related services. Grant applicants must show local partnerships, needs assessments, and implementation plans; the director must set eligibility and outcomes, consult the forum and the department’s contracts division, and require annual outcome reports from grantees. Important details remain unclear from the provided text—most notably which department will administer the program, exact funding amounts and timelines, the full list of allowable grant activities, and the completion of a truncated outreach contracting sentence—so the scope of costs, staffing needs, and how much funding reaches communities versus administration cannot be fully determined.