Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)

In 2021, the South Carolina General Assembly established the Office of Broadband Coordinator within the Office of Regulatory Staff to serve as the central broadband planning body for the state and to coordinate with federal, state, regional, local, and private entities to encourage the continued development of access to broadband in the Palmetto State. The office was charged with convening a collaborative stakeholder process to identify challenges to expediting broadband access—and so it established the Broadband Advisory Council to help guide broadband planning in South Carolina.

In his State of the State Address to the 65th Wyoming Legislature on January 9, 2019—just two days after he was sworn in as Wyoming’s 33rd governor—Mark Gordon (R-WY) outlined his top priorities: fiscal discipline, economic development, and improving Wyoming people’s quality of life. “I support the ongoing effort to improve access to broadband internet coverage throughout the state," he said.

Recent legislation included big increases in federal funding for the deployment of broadband, which is increasingly critical to daily life, but unavailable in some areas. Our analysis found that thousands more skilled workers will be needed to deploy broadband and 5G funded by recent federal programs. If this work is spread over 10 years, the funding would support about 23,000 additional workers at its peak. A shorter timespan could require even more of them. We found mixed evidence on whether there's a shortage of these workers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) received approximately $36.70 billion in supplemental funding outside of its annual appropriation from three COVID-19 relief laws between 2020 and 2021: the CARES Act; the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA); and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). As of August 23, 2022, VA had obligated approximately 99 percent of its funds from the CARES Act and FFCRA and 56.9 percent of funds from ARPA.

At the height of the pandemic in April 2020, the City of Chicago learned that roughly 1 in 5 K-12-aged students did not have internet access at home. Schools had shifted to remote learning, and Chicago needed to act quickly to ensure that students could continue their education from home.

South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster (R-SC) and Rep James Clyburn (R-SC) announced the state has appropriated an investment of around $490,000,000 for broadband. The money comes from four broadband infrastructure grant programs. The state said it has already awarded $55,246,310. An additional $400,000,000 is planned to be awarded over the next 12 months, with an initial $180,000,000 by December 2022. The funding brought access to high-speed internet for more than 100,000 households in South Carolina.

Rural and Native communities in the US have long had lower rates of cellular and broadband connectivity than urban areas, where four out of every five Americans live. Outside the cities and suburbs, which occupy barely 3% of US land, reliable internet service can still be hard to come by.

The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $4.5 million Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Recovery Assistance grant to the Port of Lewiston, Lewiston, Idaho, to expand internet connectivity for commerce, public health and safety and learning in North Central Idaho. This project will support the construction of a 95-mile segment of fiberoptic cable running from Moscow to Grangeville. This EDA grant will be matched with $1.1 million in local funds and is expected to create 120 jobs, according to grantee estimates.