Changes to Broadband Grants Could be Coming

At a hearing yesterday, September 9, 2009, Congressman Rick Boucher (VA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet said, essentially, that he does not think the current rules for distributing broadband grants are fair to remote communities in the eastern part of the United States. To that end, he urged administrators to be flexible in distributing grant funds.

Boucher is specifically concerned about how a community is determined to be “remote.” Under current rules, some grants are not available to “remote communities that are within 50 miles of a city of at least 20,000.” According to a story on the Reuters website, Boucher stated, ‘"Almost the entire Eastern U.S. is disqualified from 80 to 100 percent grants by this inappropriate standard, which in mountainous terrain is not a reasonable yardstick for determining need [.]"’

This past July the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture announced the release of $4 billion in loans and grants “as part of a $7.2 billion program aimed at expanding broadband access to unserved and underserved areas.” The amount of applications and funds requested was ‘“nearly seven times the total amount of funding available in this one round . . . underscores the extent of interest,”’ according to Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickland.

According to the Reuters story Strickland heard complaints about how the applications process affects the eastern part of the country, and he will review them. To read the Reuters story click here.

Posted: 09/10/09