Agriculture Bills Would Reauthorize Rural Broadband Loan Program
The Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled a fresh Farm Bill Friday, including $50 million per year for the Rural Broadband Loan Program operated by the Rural Utilities Service. Congress must pass a Farm Bill every five years -- the current law expires at the end of 2012. Also last week, Agriculture Committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Connecting Rural America Act, which would reauthorize the program but provide only $20 million annually. Rural telecom companies hailed the Brown bill, aimed at further expanding broadband access to small, remote, and high poverty communities.
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Senate Agriculture plans to mark up the 2012 Farm Bill (http://xrl.us/bm4muy) Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Room 228-A, Russell Building, the committee said. The bill would renew the Rural Broadband Loan program through 2017, provide $50 million annually and expand the program to include grants. The bill would provide priority to projects serving communities with populations below 20,000 permanent residents, communities “experiencing outmigration,” communities with a “high percentage” of low-income residents or “a rural community isolated from other significant population centers.” Grants may not exceed 50 percent of the project’s cost under the bill.
The new Farm Bill also adds a section on transparency and reporting. Grant or loan awardees would be required to submit quarterly progress reports about projects receiving funding. The Agriculture Secretary would have to maintain a free and “fully searchable” database on the Internet listing applicants and a description and status for each application. For entities receiving funding, the data would provide the entity’s name, type of assistance received, purpose for the funding and the entity’s required quarterly report. The section also would give the secretary authority to deobligate awards to grantees “that demonstrate an insufficient level of performance, or wasteful or fraudulent spending."
Like the Farm Bill, the Brown bill would reauthorize and add a grant provision to the existing rural broadband loan program through 2017 and give the Department of Agriculture more flexibility to award grants and loan packages.
"There are still too many communities that lack access to broadband,” Brown said. “By bridging the ‘digital divide,’ we can ensure that all Ohioans have access to Web-based information and services that will allow our rural communities and businesses to compete in the global economy.”
OPASTCO supported the Brown bill, saying it was “crucial” to supporting jobs, education and healthcare in rural communities. “In the current regulatory environment, broadband funding is more important than ever,” said Randy Tyree, OPASTCO’s vice president of legislative policy. “The Rural Broadband Loan Program gives rural broadband providers in high-cost areas of our country an avenue for funding broadband infrastructure."
NCTA Vice President-Government Affairs Tom Wacker said Friday he thought Brown’s bill is “on the right track.” Wacker warned that rural carriers desire “a clearer path forward” on the FCC’s proposed changes to the USF and intercarrier compensation.