Agriculture Panel Eyes Farm Bill to Promote Broadband
House Agriculture Committee lawmakers seek broadband “equality” between rural and urban areas, they said a Rural Development Subcommittee field hearing Saturday in Springfield, Ill. The lawmakers said they may take up the issue when they reauthorize the farm bill next year. Among other things, Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Costa, D-Calif., urged revision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition of rural. Witnesses at the hearing testified about the importance of broadband to education, healthcare and business.
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"The Internet is supposed to be a great equalizer to break down the traditional barriers of distance,” said Subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, R-Ill. Rural broadband “drives economic growth,” he said. Improving rural broadband is one piece of the “bigger issue,” which is “arresting the decline in rural America.” Subcommittee members may have disagreed on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but “we can all agree” that “rural America faces a critical time and broadband service, postal service [and] economic development in small town rural America is critical … to the future of America,” Johnson said. “We can also agree that regardless of whether the stimulus was or was not a good idea,” everyone wants to address lack of capacity and to make sure funds intended for small towns don’t go to big cities, Johnson said.
As Congress considers “reauthorizing the 2012 farm bill, we will take very carefully under consideration the suggestions made” at Saturday’s hearing, Costa said. “As we look at the RUS rural telephone loan and loan guarantee program, the broadband loan program,” ways to increase local control and challenges of startup businesses, Congress should strive to achieve a “level playing field,” he said.
Congress should take another look at the definition of rural at the Agriculture Department, since the current definition doesn’t capture all rural areas, Costa said. “I think I know what rural means, but it certainly doesn’t apply to the definition under today’s law,” he said. “We need to change that.” The subcommittee will “continue to pressure USDA” to provide a report to Congress required in the 2008 farm bill about the various definitions of rural and “how to provide more flexibility in administrating the rural development program while still ensuring they're working for the benefit of rural America,” Costa said. Broadband adoption, especially among low-income households, is another problem that must be addressed, Costa said. Even after the broadband is laid, “we still have a lot of work to do in terms of bridging the divide between the haves and the have nots, especially I think in rural America.”
The Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation “are crucial in deploying communications in rural areas,” said Les Fowler, government affairs manager for the McDonough Telephone Cooperative. The company, a member of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, supports the overhaul agreement presented to the FCC by NTCA and large telecom companies, he said. Also, Fowler said it’s critical to maintain broadband loan programs and other communications programs at RUS.
Many people in rural areas are “disenfranchised” from Internet education “because they are not served by the affordable broadband connectivity required to fully participate in online learning,” said Ray Shroeder, director of online affairs at the University of Illinois. Students in some rural areas pay about $100 per month for “less-than-reliable broadband service capped at as little as one or a few gigabytes,” Shroeder said. “The fear of exceeding the limit causes parents to restrict Internet access to children doing schoolwork.” Shroeder said Congress should not promote one broadband technology but rather a “fabric of solutions” including wireless, wireline and satellite services.
Prairie Power wants to adopt smart-grid technologies to reduce costs and lessen its impact on the environment but can’t without “drastically increased bandwidth,” said CEO Jay Bartlett. Illinois hospitals need better broadband to upgrade their telemedicine systems, said Sue Campbell, CEO of the Community Memorial Hospital in Staunton, Ill. “The demand for access to this connectivity does not come without a price, and many rural and remote healthcare providers will be hard-pressed to find the money to invest in certified computer systems that meet the requirements of meaningful use as well as the access to broadband connectivity to carry their data,” she said. Most of U.S. Wellness Meats’ sales are to urban areas, said Jim Crum, a farmer providing beef for the company in Virginia, Ill. “There are several factors that lead to this, but one is certainly the fact that decent Internet service is not readily available in the Midwest and other rural areas,” he said.