Hibbing Daily Tribune: Nolan announces broadband initiative act

Nolan does not envision a direct increase in federal spending with his proposal, but rather a way to more efficiently deliver broadband services rurally while making better use of current financing.

“The congressman does support more funding for rural broadband, but there are varying estimates on what universal broadband would cost.

“This is a good first step toward directing our existing resources and the report required by the legislation would help give a better lay of the land as to what we need to get to universal broadband, as bringing it to rural America is the biggest challenge to that goal,” a Nolan spokeswoman said in an email response to a question from the Mesabi Daily News on putting a price tag to the congressman’s proposal.

But Nolan’s initiative would create a new federal agency — Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives within the Department of Agriculture, which would have a new under-secretary position created.

The office would administer about $724 million in existing rural broadband loan and grant programs. It would also serve as a clearing house of all broadband information for all agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, which administers $4.5 billion targeted for rural areas.

“It is time to bring high-speed broadband to all of rural America,” Nolan said.

“More than half of all rural Americans are without high-speed broadband. Yet there is no clear congressionally approved plan, no strategy, and no single federal office responsible for helping connect tens of millions of rural people to modern broadband services.”

Nolan said the economy of rural parts of the country is being held back because of poor broadband.

“Here in rural America, high-speed broadband is essential to our ability to compete — to help start new businesses, create new jobs, attract new people and provide the education and health care services so essential to our quality of life,” Nolan said in a statement.