The finish line is in sight. “Internet for all,” as the Biden administration put it, will soon be a reality if America keeps its priorities straight.
During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden set the bar high: “Let’s buy Americans” as the US spends billions of dollars on new broadband connections. This is a smart strategy to create American jobs and boost the US economy, but our leaders must not sacrifice speed in the race to close the digital divide when “Buy American” is not yet a realistic option. .
Strengthened during the pandemic, when everyone finally understood that broadband is a necessity, bipartisan cooperation gave America a once-in-a-generation opportunity to achieve universal connectivity. To date, Congress and the administration have committed more than $90 billion to finish the private sector’s job of connecting every home in America with broadband Internet service.
During this sprint toward “Internet for All,” American leaders must avoid creating roadblocks that will slow progress.
Under the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, for example, all participating states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, will receive a minimum of $100 million for Internet infrastructure, and they will deliver more based on the proportional number of unserved locations in each state. Cartesian Dear All that fiber providers will contribute another $22 billion in funding for a total of $64 billion, which is “sufficient to achieve the program’s availability goal” of making broadband service “available to all eligible locations”. That is first.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021, also included $14.2 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which has helped more than 17 million American families pay for a home broadband connection that they would otherwise struggle to afford. Additionally, the bill reserved $2.75 billion for Digital Equity programs; $2 billion for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program; $2 billion for the Rural Utilities Service’s Telemedicine, Broadband, and Distance Learning Program; and $1 billion for a new Middle Mile grant program. This is truly broadband’s moment of glory.
During this sprint toward “Internet for All,” American leaders must avoid creating roadblocks that will slow progress. Every American deserves to have the chance to “attend classes, start a small business, visit your doctor, and participate in the modern economy.”
The Build America Buy America Act, which was signed into law as part of IIJA, requires infrastructure projects (including Internet infrastructure funded by the BEAD Program) to use domestically sourced materials. But broadband networks are complex; they are more than just fiber cables. Some essential pieces of the puzzle, such as certain electronic products, are not currently manufactured in the United States and the components that make up those products are not available in the United States.
We should always do all we can to honor President Biden’s goal of “Buy American,” but not at the expense of putting Americans out of line while they wait for every switch, router, and radio to be made in the US. After all, the Government Accountability Office recently My dear that the BEAD Program alone could create 23,000 jobs for skilled telecom workers…just to build the infrastructure. Spending will go predominantly to US paychecks and balances, even if we need to rely on foreign manufacturers for a limited number of network components.
United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo recently Announced that CommScope and Corning are investing nearly $550 million and creating hundreds of new jobs in the United States to build fiber optic cables. Although the Obama administration provided a blanket “Buy American” exemption for IT products in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which recognizes that US involvement seeks a solution that is balanced, maximizing US production When possible and that allows select network components to be sourced from outside our borders when necessary.
Lots of good things are happening to close the digital divide, including the Federal Communications Commission recently dedicating $66 million a Affordable Broadband Extension Grants. Let’s not lose that momentum. Let’s not sacrifice the excellent for the perfect
It’s time for the Biden administration to guard against the unintended consequences of the “Buy American” ideal and keep an eye on the prize: Everyone in America, including communities of color, rural communities, and older Americans, needs broadband now. .
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