Rural Development (USDA )

Jim Stritzinger, Director of the South Carolina Broadband Office, likes “to think of the work we’re doing as an Olympic relay race.” The first leg, he said, was the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The second leg was federal funding like the US Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Loan and Grant Program and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The third leg was the American Rescue Plan Act.

The United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD), which is comprised of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS), Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and Rural Housing Service (RHS), is amending 14 program funding opportunities to remove references to the Biden Administration’s key priorities and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related scoring criteria to bring them into compliance with the Executive Order, ‘‘Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing’’, issued on January 20, 2025.

This study investigates the impacts of 23 US Department of Agriculture Community Connect grant projects approved in fiscal years 2017–2019 on measured broadband download and upload speeds during 2019–2022 using program data, Ookla Speedtest data, and other data. We find that these projects had a positive impact on upload speed but not download speed, increasing upload speeds in project areas by an average of about 28 percent across the study periods. We find larger impacts on upload speed of projects that supported fiber-to-the-household than other projects and larger impacts in some geogra

Reps Kat Cammack (R-FL) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) introduced the Deploying Infrastructure with Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (DIGITAL Applications Act). The bill establishes online portals for the acceptance, processing, and disposal of a Form 299 for communications use authorizations at the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Form 299s are used for permitting related to communications technology. 

The United States Department of Agriculture released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Community Connect Grant Program for fiscal year 2025. The USDA’s Rural Utilities Service estimates that approximately $26 million in grants will be available to eligible applicants this year. The Community Connect Grant Program offers financial support to qualified applicants that will deliver broadband services at or above the grant’s specified speed to all premises in rural, economically challenged communities that lack internet access.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins delivered remarks to hundreds of local leaders at the National Association of Counties. She spoke about vision for restoring rural prosperity to America. "We will ensure that USDA’s Rural Development programs are running as efficiently and effectively as possible to support the people they are intended to serve. We are carefully considering how we can improve programs to incentivize greater growth.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins traveled to Kansas and Missouri, respectively, meeting with farmers, ranchers, and members of the agricultural community to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the industry. Conversations focused on expanding market access, strengthening rural economies, and ensuring producers have the tools to remain competitive on a global scale.

The Trump administration is spurring confusion as it seeks to implement a sweeping freeze of federal assistance, undermining laws Congress has enacted in recent years.

The American people elected Donald Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.  Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.