Congressional Spending Bill Allocates $600 Million in New Rural Broadband Funding

New rural broadband funding is included in the $1.3 trillion congressional omnibus bill. The bill calls for an additional $600 million to be distributed through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The funding authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to create a pilot program within RUS that distributes the new funding in the form of grants and loans. There are details to be worked out, but the authorization calls for “expedited” delivery of the program. A few conditions were mandated by the funding bill. They include:

• Ninety percent of the households served by any project funded through this program must be unserved or underserved and can’t currently have 10/1 Mbps broadband access
• Any entity receiving funds from the program is prohibited from overbuilding an existing RUS borrower
• No more than 4% of funds received through the program can be used towards administrative costs