May 2, 2019
Background: Today, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced The Broadband Interagency Coordination Act, bipartisan legislation requiring the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Telecommunications Information Administration to enter into an interagency agreement that mandates coordination among the agencies for the distribution of broadband deployment funds.
The following statement can be attributed to Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of USTelecom:
“Senators Wicker and Klobuchar get what it takes to connect rural America. Pushing more connectivity into unserved parts of America requires a smart and sustained partnership between government and broadband providers. It also requires that government funding is directed first to communities that remain on the wrong side of the digital divide. Requiring better coordination among agencies managing our finite federal broadband dollars is the definition of good government and will speed our shared mission of ensuring broadband reaches every home and business that still needs it.”