Rep Loebsack (D-IA) Makes Correcting Broadband Access Gaps His Central Mission

Internet access might seem like an assumed party of everyday life in 21st century America, but in many rural communities across the nation people still lack a reliable broadband connection. The Federal Communication Commission reports an estimated 15 million Americans, primarily in rural communities, don't have access to entry-level broadband in their homes and 41 percent of rural schools can't access a high-speed Internet connection. Rep Dave Loebsack (D-IA) has made it a central mission of his work in Congress to correct service gaps in his state.

Rep Loebsack, whose district spans across southeast Iowa, held a series of roundtable meetings to discuss the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act and how it could help local businesses navigate the complex and ever-changing federal telecommunications regulations. "Broadband is a huge issue for rural America and there's not enough being done in DC, I think, to help out when it comes to rural broadband," Rep Loebsack said. The bill, co-sponsored by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) and passed unanimously in the House of Representatives, extends the FCC exemption from its enhanced transparency rules for small Internet service providers (ISPs) for five years. The goal of the short-term extension, Rep Loebsack said, was to ease the regulatory burden on small businesses tasked with sifting through hundreds of pages of evolving telecommunications guidelines, while also running the day-to-day operations of their companies.