ReConnect Loan and Grant Program

Sens Peter Welch (D-VT) and Roger Marshall (R-KS)  introduced the bipartisan ReConnecting Rural America Act, legislation to reauthorize and reinforce the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) ReConnect Loan and Grant Program.

Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-FL), Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL), Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) introduced the Rural Internet Improvement Act of 2023. The Rural Internet Improvement Act eliminates duplicative broadband programs at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) by merging and codifying the popular Rural e-Connectivity Pilot Program (ReConnect) with USDA's broadband loan and grant program.

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The ongoing Farm Bill negotiations may mean linking millions of Americans to the 21st-century economy and taking a step toward the broader dream of high-tech agriculture. Since the last Farm Bill was passed in 2018, the federal government has spent billions to try to bring high-speed internet to the nearly 12 million rural households that don’t have it.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a new dashboard highlighting federal investments in high-speed Internet programs. NTIA developed the dashboard to accompany the Federal Broadband Funding Report.

Congressman Jim Baird (R-IN) introduced a resolution emphasizing the need to invest in broadband expansion. The resolution, if passed, says the House of Representatives finds that:

The groundwork for a well-connected Delaware dates back to 1997 with a pioneering collaboration between the state's departments of technology & information, transportation, and education. The Delaware Department of Transportation constructed extensive fiber for transportation purposes, quickly placing Delaware at the cutting edge of intelligent state transportation systems. This initial public investment in fiber infrastructure also supported a broad array of public institutions.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Department is investing $40 million to provide high-speed internet access for people living and working in rural areas in New Mexico. The three projects being announced today in New Mexico are:

In a letter to the leaders of the Congressional Committees on Agriculture, a coalition of partners in rural development, education and communications urged Congress to "aim for levels of connectivity in USDA programs that will meet the needs of rural Americans not just today but well into the future." They wrote, "we encourage you to continue to put the interests of rural communities first by codifying in the Farm Bill a minimum service level commitment of 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband service – the level specified in the oversubscribed third round of ReConnect – for any applicant seeking

The US Department of Agriculture’s Broadband ReConnect Program already got a $2 billion boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but President Joe Biden is looking to bolster the loan and grant initiative with a fresh batch of funding. In a budget proposal covering fiscal year 2024, President Biden called for an additional $400 million to be allocated to the program to help deploy broadband in unserved areas. “Installing high-speed internet creates high-paying union jobs and strengthens rural