Senate bill targets Biden-era rural broadband funding
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Senate bill targets Biden-era rural broadband funding
A bill filed in the U.S. Senate aims to limit rural broadband funding previously allocated under the Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, says the Senate bill is disappointing.
“It’s frustrating in some ways to see us forget that commitment we had post-COVID to really connect everyone, and recognizing it’s so important for the American economy,” she said. “It’s important for the ag economy, manufacturing, and trade.”
The RECAPTURE Act – or Recovering Excess Communications Appropriations while Protecting Telecommunications Upgrades, Reinvestment, and Expansion – would pull back approximately $21 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funds that were appropriated for “non-deployment” uses.
According to the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, eligible so-called “non-deployment” activities included: cybersecurity and privacy training, remote learning or telehealth services, digital skills training, computer science, coding and cybersecurity education programs, implementation of digital equity plans, broadband sign-up assistance and tech support, multi-lingual outreach to support adoption and digital literacy, prisoner education to promote pre-release digital literacy, job skills, and online job-acquisition skills, digital navigators, direct subsides for use toward broadband subscriptions that improve affordability, costs association with stakeholder engagement, and other allowable costs necessary to carrying out programmatic activities of an award.
Bloomfield tells Brownfield ag producers depend on broadband and “critical” funding shouldn’t be restricted.
“You look at the technology farmers can get in real-time with precision ag as they are actually literally in the field figuring out all of the monitoring and all of the planting,” she said. “Also, livestock controls. The ability to, in real-time, monitor the health and the output.”
The $21 billion was part of more than $42 billion earmarked by the Biden administration to address the digital divide.
The RECAPTURE Act was drafted by Iowa Republican U.S Senator Joni Ernst and is co-sponsored by Republican Ted Cruz of Texas.
Shirley Bloomfield Audio Interview: