Broadband Stimulus Grants Seen as Political Flashpoint

National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Lawrence Strickling acknowledged that beyond the technical and administrative hurdles his organization faces, it also confronts a public relations challenge.

In a keynote address at a conference convened by a coalition representing community-level broadband projects, he urged members of the audience to call attention to their projects and highlight their successes. The NTIA charged with disbursing $7 billion in economic stimulus funding to jumpstart new broadband deployments. "We're in an election year," Assistant Secretary Strickling said. "There are people out there who have as their commitment the desire to try to embarrass this program. And they'll be looking at every little thing that you're doing." Just last week, Assistant Secretary Strickling appeared before the House Commerce Committee for an oversight hearing on the broadband grant program. For the first 15 minutes or so of the hearing, Assistant Secretary Strickling said he was quizzed about the cost of routers that one grant recipient in a member's district was using, a level of minutiae that signaled the extent to which the broadband program had been politicized. "There are folks out there who don't want to hear the truth about this. And it's important that every one of you be very vigilant," Assistant Secretary Strickling told members of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition.