House Agriculture Committee Leadership: Give us a floor vote on broadband

House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA) and Minority Leader G.T. Thompson (R-PA) pressed House leadership for a floor vote on the panel’s $43.2 billion rural broadband bill, H.R. 4374, which was unanimously approved by the committee earlier in July. What the committee is pushing is distinct from what the commerce-related panels (which also have jurisdiction over broadband) typically favor and from what Senate infrastructure negotiators eventually settled on in the $65 billion infrastructure deal. House Agriculture leaders, perhaps predictably, want the Department of Agriculture to play “the leading role in our nation’s broadband strategy." (While Congress has typically slated a rural broadband role and funds for USDA, the Commerce Department and Federal Communications Commission are also big players; the Senate deal would allocate deployment dollars to Commerce to give out as state grants, with just $2 billion going to USDA’s broadband efforts.)