Remarks of Assistant Secretary Strickling at Digital Northwest Broadband Summit

Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle (WA) asked this morning for a stronger federal partner to help communities in their broadband efforts. I am here today to offer the National Telecommunications & Information Administration as your partner and to urge you to take advantage of our expertise on these issues. Key to this effort is our new BroadbandUSA program, which offers technical assistance, guidance and resources to communities across the country seeking to expand local broadband deployment and adoption.

We launched this program in 2015 to build on the lessons learned, best practices and collective wisdom from across our broadband grant portfolio, and to leverage the federal investments that we have already made through our broadband programs. Today’s Digital Northwest Summit is an important part of this new initiative as we travel the country to convene local, state and federal officials, industry representatives, community activists and other stakeholders to study the broadband challenges they face and explore potential solutions. As part of this initiative, our technical assistance team is here to provide free, one-to-one support to you today and tomorrow.