Broadband expert says USDA shutdown is hurting rural internet expansion

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For municipalities looking to start their own broadband services, 2019 hasn’t gotten off to a great start. While there is more technical assistance available than ever before, the federal government’s partial shutdown has been a hindrance, said Chris Mitchell, the director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self Reliance. Through its Rural Utilities Service program, the US Department of Agriculture provides rural development grants to municipalities and local governments applying to expand or construct broadband infrastructure, and the agency invested $228 million across 22 states in 2018. But until the federal government emerges from a shutdown that has so far lasted 27 days, the “provision of new rural development loans and grants” under the program will remain unfunded in 2019. And communities without broadband will remain cut off from assistance provided through the USDA.


Broadband expert says USDA shutdown is hurting rural internet expansion