Senators Sticking Up for Rural America
Congress has been busy working on a variety of high speed internet proposals lately. Yet another effort--led by Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ken Salazar (D-CO)--seeks to overhaul a federal loan program that helps rural communities.
At least, that was the original intent of the Rural Utility Service's Broadband Access Loan program. Although it's provided more than a billion dollars in loans since its inception in 2002, much of the funding has gone to places that don't need it:
"RUS has used its limited funds in urban areas, suburban developments and towns that already have access to high-speed Internet," Roberts said in a written statement. He wants to shift the focus back to rural regions that lack broadband service.
The problem stems from the vast discretion given to the administrator of the loan program in deciding how to distribute the funds. Congress created the program to serve communities of fewer than 20,000 residents, but a 2005 report by the Agricultural Department's inspector general charged that it had "shifted away from those rural communities that would not, without government assistance, have access to broadband technologies."
Senators Roberts and Salazar want Congress to require that the loans be given to communities in which 75 percent of residents lack access to high speed internet. If their legislation is passed--or included as part of the 2007 Farm Bill--it will be another important step in getting high speed internet to the places that need it most.
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