The National Grange issues a statement Addressing Broadband Equity

The National Grange issued a statement regarding the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing May 6 on “Broadband Equity: Addressing Disparities in Access and Affordability”

National Grange Statement:

Rural communities in America are in desperate need of broadband internet. We’ve needed it for a long time and the pandemic has only made that more clear. We need help from Congress to not just access broadband but to get broadband networks to our communities in the first place. We cannot increase access if there are no networks for us to connect to.

The administration has suggested that some $100 billion be spent to increase broadband access, on top of existing programs such as the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). That could be duplicative and waste even more time. We need clarity from Congress about who will be in charge of allocating new funds. The best way to connect rural America is to create policy cohesion at the national level that enables common carries to bring broadband to rural communities.

The administration and Congress can work to bridge the digital divide for rural America. But that cannot be done by focusing spending in areas that don’t need it and attaching onerous new rules to existing and new programs to increase access to broadband internet.