Senate Finance Committee Marks-up Stimulus Bill

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Finance approved by a vote of 14-9 a package of approximately $522 billion in job creating tax cuts, incentives, and investments in the nation's economy, for inclusion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Bipartisan amendments were also accepted into the legislation prior to the markup including tax credits for broadband technology investment in rural and underserved areas to spur jobs and economic opportunities. Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said he successfully fought to include broadband tax incentives in the economic recovery legislation for companies that make technology infrastructure investments in areas that need it the most. Rockefeller offered an amendment, which was accepted by the Senate Finance Committee, to the stimulus bill that establishes a 10 percent tax credit for investments in current-generation broadband infrastructure in rural and underserved areas; a 20 percent credit for current-generation broadband in areas that have no access at all now; and, a 20 percent tax credit for next-generation broadband infrastructure (i.e., even higher speeds), which results in faster, more reliable connections. In addition, Senator Rockefeller worked with the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Obama administration to include $9 billion in that committee's version of the legislation for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to improve broadband deployment. With this funding, the Appropriations bill re-creates the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program in the NTIA to distribute grants to encourage deployment in areas of need, and fully funds the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which provides funding to state and public-private partnerships to map broadband deployment across the country. Fifty percent of the total funding is dedicated to rural areas.