The Duluth News Tribune posts an opinion piece by Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township, who represents District 10B in the Minnesota House…

While most Minnesotans are used to seeing stories about legislators disagreeing, there is one area where bipartisan momentum is growing: broadband….

Last session, lawmakers passed a law requiring broadband installers to become certified by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry by taking a training course that is 10 times longer than similar courses for pipelayers. No other state in the nation requires this for broadband installation. While the law’s intentions may have been good, the law does not take into account the impact it will have on the folks doing these projects on the ground. Without some common-sense changes to the law this session, we risk falling behind other states and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal broadband funding.

We can’t let that happen, and we’re working to make the law better for everyone.

Like other permitting reforms, we need to find balance between all stakeholders. That’s why I am authoring a bipartisan bill to make modifications to the certification program this session. Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, is a co-author of the companion bill in the Senate.

Currently, contractor associations and trade unions are scrambling to create training programs in response to last year’s law. They’re moving swiftly to “train the trainers” who will be required to deploy this new 40-hour training requirement by July 1, when the law goes into effect. Pushing back the start date and bringing the number of training hours in line with similar jobs and worksites is common sense. Like in any job, we should ensure we take into consideration the years of expertise and installation experience many contractors already have.

If we don’t tackle some of these needed changes this session, the impact will be felt across Minnesota. Our state simply won’t have enough “certified” workers to do broadband projects; and many contractors and broadband service providers, citing the complicated new hurdles for broadband projects, will simply choose other projects with fewer bureaucratic barriers and deprioritize broadband, causing communities to fall behind.