I’m incredibly pleased to be a part of today’s announcement by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue of a new $600 million program for rural broadband infrastructure development, known as the ReConnect Program.

When I hosted Secretary Perdue in Farmington earlier this year, our conversations with Maine hospital workers, law enforcement officers and community leaders centered around the importance of broadband access in our rural areas. This new loan and grant program will hopefully help assist our communities in Maine in investing in critical broadband infrastructure. I’ll continue to work with the federal government and our local leaders to get Maine’s communities connected.