Infrastructure Package Holds Promise For Broadband Expansion
SARA WYANT AND BEN NUELLE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The U.S. Senate passed a massive bipartisan infrastructure bill this week that would make a historic $110 billion investment in roads and bridges, $65 billion in expanding high-speed internet, and over $17 billion for improving ports and inland waterways.
The 2,702-page bill, which would provide $550 billion in new spending for infrastructure, also includes significant new resources for forest management on federal lands and for addressing irrigation needs, including rehabilitation of Bureau of Reclamation projects.
Little in the bill could have a bigger benefit to agriculture and rural areas than the broadband funding, which includes $42.4 billion to fund a formula-based grant program for states to deploy high-speed internet service and does not favor any specific technology.
An additional $2 billion would be provided for USDA broadband programs, including the flagship ReConnect loan and grant program, which Congress has been funding at less than $1 billion a year.
But the bulk of the broadband funding would be routed through states, and rural broadband advocates want to see the Agriculture Department play a bigger role in distributing the funding Under the bill, new projects funded either through the state grants or USDA would have to provide minimum service speeds of 100 megabits per second download and 20 megabits per second upload, far faster than the 25/3 speeds currently required under the ReConnect program.
The projects would also have to serve unserved areas before serving underserved areas. Unserved areas would be defined as currently having internet speeds of less than 25/3; under ReConnect, an area doesn’t qualify as unserved unless it has speeds no higher than 10/1.
The 100/20 requirement was a compromise between lawmakers who wanted 100/100 and those who wanted to keep the threshold at 25/3, said Jon Conradi, a spokesperson for Connect Americans Now.
“For new service, the provider will have to meet that new threshold," Conradi told Agri-Pulse. “That’s a nod to the folks who were worried about what’s commonly referred to as 'future-proofing,' to make sure the speeds for new builds would be able to support the digital technologies of the future.”
NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield said the speeds should have been symmetrical at 100/100.
“I still think we’re aiming low,” Bloomfield told Agri-Pulse.
“American consumers are using a lot of upload speeds, they just are, and I don’t know how you put that genie back in the bottle,” Bloomfield exclaimed, calling it a missed opportunity.
Bloomfield also would like to see USDA get a larger share of the funding more in line with a bill recently approved by the House Agriculture Committee that would authorize $43 billion in ReConnect funding.
The bill would make a major change in eligibility for broadband funding by changing the definition of an unserved area.
Currently, at least 90 percent of an eligible area must be considered unserved by high-speed internet service to be eligible for ReConnect funds. The bill would lower the threshold to 50 percent, with a requirement that 10 percent of the funding be set aside for areas that meet the current, 90 percent threshold.
Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who planned to offer several amendments to the broadband section, said he fears the lower, 50 percent threshold would siphon money away from rural areas that need it most. Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said the 50 percent level would still be better than nothing.
“There were situations in the past where people would bid for areas where there were just a handful of people who might be below the category and that census block would take up money and it wasn’t going to areas where the real need existed,” he told Agri-Pulse.
Another $1 billion in the bill’s broadband funding would be allocated for "middle-mile" infrastructure for fiscal years 2022 through 2026.
Middle mile is defined as any broadband infrastructure that does not connect directly to an end-user or consumer.
About 30 states have state fiber networks that are assets pooled by community-based providers and carrying internet traffic a long way can be a burden in some rural areas, NTCA’s Bloomfield said, referring to the need for middle-mile investments.
The bill also would make the Federal Communications Commission’s Emergency Broadband Benefit program permanent and renames it as the Affordable Connectivity Program. This program would subsidize broadband service for eligible households at a rate of $30 per month instead of the EBB program’s $50 rate.
Still, there’s no guarantee that this infrastructure package will make its way to President Joe Biden’s desk. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has insisted that a second $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package to fund other types of “infrastructure” must also be approved by the Senate before she’ll take both bills up in the House.
But some moderate House Democrats are balking at that notion, suggesting that the Senate does not need to pass the larger and more partisan reconciliation measure before they vote on this infrastructure package.
“As soon as the Senate completes its work, we must bring this bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor for a standalone vote,” says a letter being circulated among moderate Democrats.
“This once-in-a-century investment deserves its own consideration, without regard to other legislation.” ∆
SARA WYANT: Editor of Agri-Pulse, a weekly e-newsletter covering farm and rural policy. To contact her, go to: http://www.agri-pulse.com/