We’re fed up with dial-up. The Internet’s more than a quarter century old, and half of rural America still isn’t wired for highspeed broadband. Yet there is still no clear congressionally approved plan, no strategy and no single federal office responsible for connecting millions of underserved people and businesses. It’s time for an upgrade–and it’s time for Congress to provide the necessary funding. We’ve taken a big step forward with introduction of my Rural Broadband Initiative Act (H.R. 3152).
The need could not be more clear. High-speed broadband isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity required to help grow our small town rural economy and compete, start new businesses, create new jobs, attract new people and modernize the education and health care services so essential to quality of life.
Patterned after the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration (REA) that began connecting rural America to the electrical grid in the 1930s, our bill lays the foundation for new funding and a coordinated federal strategy to bring 21st century high-tech communications services to millions of underserved rural people and businesses.
Our plan is to centralize key rural broadband grant and loan programs under one Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With a new Under-Secretary appointed by the President, the office would administer roughly $724 million in rural broadband grant and loan programs. Regulations would be streamlined, and local and state governments would have a one-stop shop for help in connecting their areas. Just as importantly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would have a central information clearinghouse to help them better utilize some $4.5 billion in federal resources specifically targeted to expand broadband to rural areas.
Congressman Rick Nolan
Minnesota’s Eighth District
Washington, D.C. 20515
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