Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced the first grant awards under the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program that will deliver high-speed internet to thousands of lower income households. The inaugural awards from the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program will provide broadband service at $10 per month and Gigabit-speed service at $30 per month to an anticipated 14,167 lower income households across Buffalo, Rochester, upper Manhattan and the Bronx through 2034.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced awards totaling $701.9 million for the second round of the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas Program (BOOT II), aimed at bridging the digital divide and enhancing broadband access for unserved and underserved communities across the state.

President Biden made a commitment to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet by 2030. We are on track to meet that goal. In the coming years, the work started by the Biden Administration is expected to deliver the following benefits and milestones:

The mortality rate from COVID-19 was about 50% lower in U.S. counties with higher internet access in the summer and early fall of 2020. A new University of Michigan study found that broadband connection was a key factor in reducing mortality and incidence during the early months of the pandemic. The average county with high internet access had 48%-53% fewer new COVID-19 deaths and 19%-34% fewer new COVID deaths per 100,000 residents than the average county with low internet access.

In an open letter, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. shared a summary of the progress the Biden-Harris administration made over the last four years. The focus of the letter is on economic recovery and the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. A key tenet is President Biden's Investing in America agenda, which aimed to mobilize historic levels of  investments in the United States and revitalize U.S. infrastructure, including broadband internet access. Here is a look at President Biden's broadband accomplishments as he prepares to leave office.

Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) has awarded a $2.9 million grant to expand high-speed internet access in Etowah County, Alabama. The grant was awarded to Spectrum Southeast in support of a project to make high-speed internet available to 352 previously unserved households, businesses and community institutions in the Ridgeville area. The grant money is being made available through the Capital Projects Fund program, which is supported by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Due to rapid changes in the digital landscape, the first decade of the new millennium paved the path for technology-enabled teaching and learning. However, the COVID-19 pandemic entirely reshaped the national conversation in K–12 from one strictly focused on at-school connectivity to one that considers “universal connectivity,” even outside of school grounds, as a required component of a modern education system.

New Hampshire's $90 million broadband expansion plan to provide access to 48,000 unserved and underserved addresses across 115 municipalities has surpassed the halfway mark, according to the Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA). As one of the first states to receive approval for its broadband expansion program as part of the American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, New Hampshire awarded a total of $90 million in two rounds of funding, to connect a total of 48,016 homes and businesses by the end of 2026.

Cook County (IL) Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced the inaugural recipients of the Digital Equity IMPACT Small Grants Program, a groundbreaking initiative designed to promote digital inclusion through storytelling and community engagement. A total of 15 organizations across Cook County have been awarded grants of $7,500 or $15,000, depending on the size and scope of their projects.

The Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology (OSIT) is ready to submit the Final Proposal for the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA). The Final Proposal will include the provisional winners of Nevada’s first round of BEAD funding.