House Farm Bill Would Redefine 'Rural' for Broadband Loans
Broadband loan programs for rural communities would be
refocused to serve areas less populous than they now cover, according
to draft legislation reauthorizing the five-year farm bill. Many House
Agriculture Committee members praised the bipartisan draft bill as
debate began Tuesday on the massive measure covering renewal of
dozens of food programs. The broadband provisions are new; they
have bipartisan support, it appears from members' opening statements.
The bill would redefine "eligible rural community" to exclude
communities of more than 20,000, a widely endorsed change
that would help extend broadband services to remote areas. Suburban
areas, which often have multiple broadband service providers,
also would be excluded. The bill would define an "incumbent
service provider" as an entity providing broadband service to at
least 5 percent of the service area.
These changes would provide a "strong foundation" in
helping target loans to areas truly needing financial help to deploy
broadband, said Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, D-S.D. Many
farm bill provisions reflect legislation (HR-2035) she proposed
earlier this year, obtaining the endorsement of several rural House
lawmakers. "We want to be able to improve access to telecom services,"
Herseth-Sandlin said in her opening remarks.
Markup of the bill is expected to go long into Wednesday
evening, Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said at
the conclusion of Tuesday's opening remarks. "We'll see how long
we, or I can hold out,” he said. Broadband provisions comprise
only one section of the 11-title bill. It calls for setting up a National
Center for Rural Telecommunications Assessment to assess
broadband loan programs’ effectiveness. The center would report
yearly to Congress on how well the programs working, assessing
whether deployment is spreading to the most remote areas of the
country. The bill calls for $1 million to run the center.