American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

The Arkansas Legislature's Joint Budget Committee approved the state Department of Commerce's request to use $53.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for eight broadband grant projects and $2 million for broadband administrative expenses. The proposed broadband grant projects are in Ashley, Baxter, Chicot, Clark, Columbia, Hot Spring, Logan and Lonoke (AR) counties.

The committee's oversight plan for the 118th Congress. Concerning "Communications and Technology Issues," the committee will focus on the following:

Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) along with Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA-16) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19) reintroduced the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (BGTTA) — legislation that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to ensure that funding for broadband deployment from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will not be considered taxable income.

While expanding broadband access throughout Texas is a priority for Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), part of his More Prosperous Texas initiative, the governor's record on connectivity is mixed. Texas faces two simultaneous challenges. First, there remain barriers to access which are particularly prevalent in rural areas of the state. Second, even where broadband is available, there remains a substantial portion of Texans who have not adopted or subscribed to broadband in their homes.

Only a few blocks separate Amarillo’s lively, bustling downtown area from the city’s historic El Barrio district. While much of the city has spotty internet, residents in El Barrio are almost completely disconnected. The residents are determined to give current and future families more than the bare minimum.

Pittsylvania County, Virginia, is taking a unique approach to one of the biggest challenges of expanding broadband in rural areas: the upfront cost of the infrastructure. “Who should pay for the infrastructure?” is a common question when it comes to broadband expansion, said Rebecca Watts, regional vice president of Western Governors University, who serves on the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Workforce and Education Executive Committee.

Extending broadband's reach to all Nevadans is a huge challenge. Nevada is the 7th-largest state in the U.S., but ranks just 32 in population, making it one of the least densely populated states in the country. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County which is home to the state's four largest cities, including Las Vegas. But, in 2000, over half of Nevada’s counties had fewer than 2 people per square mile.

In his first State of the Commonwealth address in January 2020, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) asked lawmakers to address some stark realities. At the time, Kentucky was the third poorest state by per capita income and over 1 in 5 children in the state lived in poverty. The state ranked in the top eight of states in terms of hunger. Kentucky had some of the highest child abuse and neglect rates in the country.

As federal and local government agencies award funding to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to unserved and underserved rural areas, one company that has used that funding from a variety of sources to fuel its deployment efforts is Surf Internet. The company—which serves parts of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan—has been around since 2001 and initially focused on using fixed wireless broadband to serve rural areas.

The South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) announced 56 newly funded projects through its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Priority 1.0 (ARPA SLFRF 1.0) grant program. For this round of investments, the SCBBO committed $132,799,403 to 15 broadband providers in 33 counties.  The total project cost for this round of broadband expansion is estimated to be $256,755,322.