As NTCA continues its full-court press to ensure that policymakers put community-based providers on equal footing - regardless of their corporate structure or status - I had the opportunity this morning to take our message “right to the top” while rolling my suitcase through the DCA airport. As I prepared to go through security enroute to visit our Kansas folks in Wichita, I saw Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heading out of the gate area with his security team. I quickly yelled out a greeting to the Secretary and by way of reintroducing myself just said, “Rural Broadband folks”. He gave me a polite nod and hello and then quickly pivoted around to share that USDA had made some big moves in this area last week. Well, how could I resist that opening? I quickly dragged my bag over and shared that there were some serious flaws in the work that USDA had produced and that he should know better than most due to his experience with all of the commercial, community-based providers in Iowa when he was governor. Even with his security detail looking on (a tad nervously, I might add!) I was able to share that the vast majority of the NTCA members who have received ReConnect funding to date have been these commercially organized, community-based entities. His brow did furrow and I shared that I would happily follow up and that the program had such potential but this flaw was significant. Sometimes, airports can be better than the halls of Congress.
Now, on to the saga.
Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the next round of funding for the ReConnect grant program. Along with announcing a new round of grant funding, USDA created new guidelines for applicants that require new projects to achieve much higher symmetrical speeds and also include preferences for certain types of applicants, such as municipalities and nonprofit cooperatives.
New funding for broadband can be important for members looking to upgrade their networks or expand their footprints, and the raised speed threshold for new construction should promote deployment of future-proof networks and deter applications from those seeking to do less. At the same time, I wanted to share with you the statement we released about the announcement, specifically regarding our concerns with the preferences established for certain types of operators and municipalities. While NTCA has been able through active lobbying thus far to keep such preferences out of the $42.5 billion broadband provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure framework that appears to be making progress again, we were highly disappointed to see USDA revert to preferences that we had seen in some earlier programs from other agencies. Please rest assured that NTCA will continue to work in every policy debate to ensure that all community-based rural broadband providers, regardless of corporate form, have equal opportunity for access to these critical grant funds – rural broadband is too critical and too much of a challenge not to look to all local providers who time and again have proven the ability to deliver.
In their haste to ensure that large corporate entities who have not always put their full effort into rural broadband deployment not be able to participate in the program, RUS somehow did not provide equal footing and participation from the community based commercial entities who are already their borrowers and who have been very active in seeking funds from the ReConnect program to do their broadband deployment in some of the most rural communities in the country. These small local businesses are the heart of their Smart Rural Communities and key economic engines for the areas they serve.
Our efforts have been fast and furious on this front and have included discussions with the entire RUS leadership team, the Rural Development team, contacting Secretary Vilsack directly, the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leadership and I was even able to raise it in a call that I received from the White House sharing that Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel would finally be given the official nod to lead the FCC. I am certain that my contact got more of an earful than he anticipated when he placed the call.
We look forward to continue to work with RUS to ensure that ALL community-based providers can be part of the solution to connecting unserved and underserved Americans.
NTCA Statement on New USDA ReConnect Rules
Arlington, Va.,(October 22, 2021)— NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield today released the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announced rules regarding the ReConnect grant program for broadband providers:
“NTCA members, both cooperatively-organized and commercially-owned, have a long history and proven track record of deploying networks and delivering high quality broadband services in some of the most rural areas of the United States. Hundreds of them over many decades have leveraged the many effective programs administered by the Rural Utilities Service to help finance those networks.
“It is so important that this tremendous partnership continue, but it is disappointing to see today’s ReConnect rules include a preference for certain kinds of non-profit providers rather than for all of those community-based operators with a rich tradition of delivering the best possible broadband in rural America. Indeed, dozens of commercial NTCA members have already participated in prior rounds of ReConnect, and we remain hopeful that they will have the opportunity and ability to participate in the upcoming round as well. But the adoption of a preference in favor of providers with a different corporate form undermines these community-based companies in program scoring, erecting an obstacle in front of some who are otherwise most eager to participate in the program and deliver on a shared mission of universal service.
“We believe the Rural Utilities Service has only the best intentions in terms of serving rural communities. Its own long history bears this out, and provisions in the new rules requiring deployment of more capable, future-proof and sustainable broadband networks are further evidence of this. Unfortunately, the agency has failed in this case to place on equal footing all of those types of entities and prior participants in its programs who are most committed to serving rural America. Rural America needs all-hands-on-deck when it comes to broadband, and we hope that the Rural Utilities Service will work with us moving forward to make sure all community-based providers can continue to be part of the solution.”
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