NTIA didn’t favor certain congressional districts or parties in distributing broadband...

Program (BTOP) grant money went to the districts of Commerce Committee members who make up 14 percent of the House. “NTIA awarded BTOP grants based on merit and in strict accordance with the comprehensive review process detailed in our grant rules,” said Power. “As described in those rules, we considered factors such as sustainability projects and how they would meet the needs of the community. This resulted in a proportional distribution of grant funds, without regard to congressional districts or political affiliations, and any assertion to the contrary is just plain wrong.” Power said “the appearance of a disproportionate distribution” in the House “is created by ignoring the full scope of the grants,” many of which went to projects covering multiple districts. NTIA has been crunching numbers this week and so far has found that other committees also received a proportionate amount of funds, he said. For example, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee represents 38 percent of states and got 40 percent of the money, Power said. He conceded that it’s “very hard” to break down grants for multiple districts among them. There are a number of ways to “slice it and dice it,” he said. “Do you look at where more of the fiber was laid or do you look where the headquarters was? I don’t even know how we'd begin to do that.” NTIA is working to get winning applications posted, Power said. “The delay is that the applicants can claim FOIA exemptions and require that certain things be redacted.” Some are easier to work with than others, he said.