# Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act

This bill is designed to dramatically expand and improve internet access in rural parts of the country by pumping significantly more money into existing Department of Agriculture broadband programs. If you live in a rural area without reliable high-speed internet, this bill could eventually bring better connectivity to your community.

The bill increases funding for several different rural broadband initiatives. The main ReConnect program, which provides grants and loans to build broadband infrastructure in underserved rural areas, gets a major boost—jumping from $350 million to $5.25 billion total over nine years (2022-2030). The bill prioritizes funding for communities that currently have no broadband service at all or only very slow speeds (less than 10 megabits per second download speed). It also gives preference to smaller towns with populations under 10,000 and areas with higher poverty rates. Other programs get funding increases too: Community Connect grants (which help rural communities access broadband) triple from $50 million to $150 million annually, and the program for building the backbone infrastructure that connects rural areas to the broader internet network jumps from $10 million to $300 million per year.

The bill also creates a new "Broadband Connectors Program" to help rural organizations navigate these funding opportunities and understand what assistance is available. Additionally, it establishes a data collection initiative allowing local governments, tribal governments, and small internet providers to get up to $50,000 each to map where broadband actually exists in their areas and document its costs and speeds—information that's currently spotty and unreliable.

For rural Americans, this means more money flowing toward actually building the fiber optic cables, wireless towers, and other infrastructure needed to bring fast internet to areas that have been left behind. The bill runs through 2030, giving communities a longer window to plan and execute projects.

Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act

Scott, David

Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act This bill reauthorizes and makes other changes to various programs of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that support broadband internet expansion in rural areas. Specifically, the bill reauthorizes through FY2030 and modifies a program that provides grants, loans, and loan guarantees for broadband expansion. Modifications include revising the criteria used to prioritize applications and projects and changing the name of the program to the ReConnect Rural Broadband Program. Further, the bill terminates on June 30, 2022, a separate USDA pilot program that supports broadband expansion in rural areas; any program funds that remain available after that date shall be used for the ReConnect Rural Broadband Program. The bill also reauthorizes through FY2030 programs that support (1) rural broadband access, including for economically challenged communities; and (2) innovative technologies to decrease broadband deployment costs and increase broadband speeds. It also increases the authorization of appropriations for grants, loans, and other assistance to expand middle mile broadband infrastructure (i.e., connections between national and regional internet backbones and schools, businesses, residences, and other local connection sites). Additionally, USDA must establish a system to disseminate information and technical assistance concerning its broadband expansion programs and may award grants to units of governments and other eligible entities to collect data about broadband availability (e.g., location of infrastructure, costs, and speeds).