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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has released all 12 spending bills for fiscal 2023 without waiting for the panel’s normal bipartisan process of debating the measures separately.
A fresh round of Agriculture Department funding is set to invest $401 million to expand internet connectivity to unserved or underserved people in rural parts of the country across 11 states.
Democrats won House passage of a package of fiscal 2023 appropriations bills that includes new funding for conservation technical assistance and rural broadband Thursday as well as substantial spending increases for EPA and the Interior Department.
The House Appropriations Committee advanced a $27.2 billion spending bill for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration that would provide significant new funding for conservation technical assistance, rural broadband and food safety.
The Agriculture Department would get $560 million more for rural broadband expansion, plus increases for research, food aid and combating animal and plant diseases, under a draft House spending bill for fiscal 2023.
The Biden administration is rolling out private sector commitments for an effort it says could lower the cost of high-speed internet for 40% of the households in the country.
The Biden administration plans to use the month of April to highlight the investments and initiatives included in the 2021 infrastructure package, including a Monday event in Colorado aimed at forest fire management and a Tuesday visit to an Iowa ethanol plant.
President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal 2023 that would boost Agriculture Department spending by 9%, including significant increases for agricultural research and conservation technical assistance and a new round of funding for rural broadband expansion.
Congressional leaders announced agreement early Wednesday on a $1.5 trillion, government-wide spending bill for fiscal 2022 that includes new funding for rural broadband expansion and authorization of a cattle contract library at USDA to address concerns about market power in the beef sector.
In this opinion piece, Betsy Huber with the National Grange discusses the need to allocate broadband funding appropriately to reach the last mile of rural America.
