Press Release

NTCA Statement on Legislation to End Taxes on Broadband Grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association issued the following statement from Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield on the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act introduced in the Senate by Sens. Mark Warner and Jerry Moran along with other original cosponsors and in the House by Reps. Mike Kelly and Jimmy Panetta along with other original cosponsors, which seeks to promote greater broadband deployment by ending taxation of certain governmental broadband grant funds: 
 
“We are grateful that Congress committed tens of billions of dollars to broadband deployment grants through recent bills seeking to help close the digital divide in our country. But taxing broadband grants – requiring recipients to pay back to the government a portion of what they receive from the government – will dramatically reduce the impact of these programs and likely leave the hardest-to-reach communities without essential connectivity for even longer. It is critical that all broadband grant funds go toward their intended purpose of network deployment. NTCA is proud to support the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act, and on behalf of our members, I want to thank Senators Warner and Moran and Reps. Kelly and Panetta and the other bipartisan cosponsors for their leadership in introducing the bill. This legislation will maximize the impact of every dollar granted for broadband deployment and further the mission of getting every American connected.”