Huber Re-Appointed to Federal Communications Commission Working Group

On February 18, National Grange President Betsy Huber was appointed to serve as a Working Group member on the Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in consultation with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

This is Huber’s second term on the Working Group. In 2017, Huber was appointed to the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, then to the advisory Working Group in 2019 by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Alongside government officials and other agricultural, utilities and communications leaders from around the country, Huber has worked to identify areas of need for broadband deployment in underserved rural America and to recommend specific steps for implementation. Her re-appointment affirms the National Grange’s position of rural Broadband being one of the most crucial needs.

Huber has been a strong voice for rural America while serving as a member of the Working Group. “We have come a long way in the twenty years that National Grange has been advocating for rural Broadband,” Huber says, “but it’s time to take the final steps and make the vision a reality. By coordinating efforts among providers, creating accurate broadband availability maps and developing strong public-private partnerships, we can make this happen.”

Huber will serve on the Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands Working Group through 2024. This Working Group aims to develop policy recommendations to promote the rapid, expanded deployment of broadband Internet access on unserved agricultural land, with a goal of achieving reliability capabilities on 95 percent of agricultural land in the United States by 2025, including recommending specific steps for the FCC to consider, as well as indicating areas where funding should be directed.

Huber was elected President of the National Grange in 2015.

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Founded in 1867, The National Grange, a nonpartisan, nonprofit fraternal organization, is the country’s oldest agricultural and rural community service organization. With 140,000 members in 1,500 chapters nationwide, the Grange has evolved into a leading advocacy organization for rural America. For more information, visit vps70863.inmotionhosting.com/~nationalgrange.