NTIA, RUS Working Toward Single Stimulus Application
The NTIA and the RUS to share an application form for the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus, Mark Seifert, a senior advisor to the assistant secretary at the NTIA said Friday at a Pike & Fischer conference. Seifert, who didn’t elaborate or take questions after his speech, said only that the agencies are trying to “simplify” the process and “make it easier on consumers.” A “one-stop application process would be a major achievement,” he said. Seifert has played a major role in developing the rules for the Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program while the NTIA, part of the Commerce Department, waits for Larry Strickling to become its head. His nomination is in the Senate for confirmation.
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The agencies and the Obama administration understand that the $7.2 billion won’t “solve all the issues before us,” but they provide a jump start, Seifert said. He said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is constantly asking how the broadband stimulus “is going to help main street” and how it will “make people’s lives better.”
Meanwhile, the agencies are watching how other stimulus money is being spent, Seifert said. The NTIA is encouraging applicants to follow stimulus-funded transportation projects, for instance, so fiber could be laid under a road before it’s repaved, Seifert said. “We are going to try and incentivize that,” he said.