The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made available $4 billion in funding through its first round for broadband projects. According to an article by Patricia Resende on today’s Newsfactor.com website, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) only have two weeks to process 2,200 applications and decide who gets funding. The amount of funding made available in the first round of the ARRA is not nearly enough to match the amount of requests for funding that were submitted.Requests for the funds have come from all over, from businesses to hospitals to state and local governments. In total, more than $28 billion in funding for broadband projects have been submitted to the Commerce Department’s NTIA and the Agriculture Department’s RUS. If these were all funded, the total funding for broadband projects through ARRA would be $38 billion, as a total of $10 billion in matching funds must come from applicants.
Both the NTIA and RUS say they will prioritize applicants based on the need and the potential growth opportunities from broadband development in underserved areas. Lawrence Stickling, the assistant secretary for communications and information and administrator of the NTIA said, ‘"We will move quickly but carefully to fund the best projects to bring broadband and jobs to more Americans[.]”’
The “RUS will invest $2.5 billion in broadband deployment for rural communities.” Jonathan Adelstein, RUS administrator stated, ‘"Rural communities clearly recognize that broadband can expand their economic opportunities and create jobs . . . The Obama administration's goal is to target funds to serve areas of greatest need. The big demand for loans as well as grants demonstrates that we can leverage private investment with USDA's $2.5 billion to deliver the greatest bang for the taxpayers' buck."’
The top requests, according to the Resende article, in both departments was for infrastructure funding. Additional requests were made for public computer projects at various public institutions and facilities. Once all the applications are processed the agencies will post the recipients on an on-line database.
To read the Resende article click here.
Posted: 08/28/09
