The Rural Utilities Service telecom and broadband loan programs remain...
The Rural Utilities Service telecom and broadband loan programs remain essential to a healthy and growing rural economy, and contribute to the provision of universal communications services comparable to those found in urban areas, USTelecom President Walter McCormick told the…
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chairman and ranking member of the House Rural Development Subcommittee in a letter Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bm4y2u). Detractors’ claims that a 2009 Department of Agriculture review provided justification for termination of the Broadband Loan program are unjustified because that report reviewed the program before congressionally mandated changes in the 2008 Farm Bill, McCormick said. Other critics “have deliberately conflated” separate RUS programs, such as the Broadband Initiatives Program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with the Broadband Loan program required by Congress in the Farm Bill, he said. The Broadband Loan program complements the High-Cost Universal Service program, McCormick said, and each one is “an important element in deploying cutting edge communications services to rural America.” The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the 2012 Farm Bill Wednesday.