House Passes Farm Bill With Rural Broadband Language, Sending It to Trump
The House voted 369-47 Wednesday to pass the compromise farm bill (HR-2), with broadband provisions. Telecom stakeholders had mixed reactions to broadband language including revamp of some Rural Utilities Service broadband funding requirements (see 1812110050). The Senate passed the measure…
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Tuesday, meaning it's now headed to President Donald Trump's desk. The farm bill “will ease the regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, help America’s farmers embrace next-generation technologies, and ensure federal resources target the communities most in need of assistance with infrastructure buildout,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. USTelecom believes the measure is “an important, but still partial, down payment on the public/private partnership necessary” to improve rural broadband deployments, said CEO Jonathan Spalter. “More work remains to ensure scarce federal dollars are reaching truly unserved areas, and we look forward to working with the new Congress.” WTA believes the grant-making authority the farm bill gives to RUS “will complement the existing low-interest loan programs to get broadband out to those rural areas where additional assistance is needed,” said Senior Vice President-Government and Industry Affairs Derrick Owens.