Year Two of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law at USDA

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been helping to close the digital divide in rural America by building, improving, and acquiring the facilities and equipment needed to deliver high-speed internet through the ReConnect Program. High-speed internet connects rural communities to jobs, telemedicine and distance learning, farmers with new technologies and the real-time information they need to stay competitive, and helps small businesses develop their markets. Since 2021, the Department of Agriculture has announced nearly $2.3 billion for ReConnect projects to expand high-speed internet access to hundreds of thousands of people through broadband loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations in 35 states. Examples include:

• Public Service Telephone Company received a loan of more than $36 million to connect nearly 13,000 people, nearly 300 businesses, 261 farms and 16 educational facilities to high-speed internet in Georgia.
• Pine Belt Telephone Company, Inc. received a loan/grant combination of nearly $50 million to connect nearly 16,000 people, 608 businesses, 52 educational facilities and 407 farms to high-speed internet in Alabama, including socially vulnerable communities.
• Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc. received a loan/grant combination award of more than $43 million to provide high-speed internet to nearly 1,300 people, 36 businesses, 696 farms and three educational facilities in Oklahoma and New Mexico.
• Scott County Telephone Cooperative received a $25 million grant to provide high-speed internet to socially vulnerable communities in Virginia, including more than 17,000 people, 1,018 businesses, 37 farms and 49 educational facilities.
• USDA Rural Development is co-funding a Broadband Technical Assistance Pilot Cooperative Agreement to create one-stop technical assistance, and provide resources and support, to help Oregon communities leverage historic federal broadband investments.