The Biden administration has detailed how the government will divvy up $42 billion among the nation’s 50 states in an effort to expand high-speed broadband to every household and small business throughout the United States by 2030.
In a fact sheet released on June 26, the White House said access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for many Americans to complete the different roles in their jobs, participate in school projects, or stay connected with loved ones.
“Yet, more than 8.5 million households and small businesses are in areas where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable internet options,” it states.
The $42 billion in federal funding under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program—which was signed by Biden through his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021—is based on a newly released Federal Communications Commission coverage map that details gaps in access.
The Department of Commerce unveiled funding for states, territories, and the District of Columbia on Monday, noting that awards will range from $27 million to over $3 billion depending on location. Each state will receive a minimum funding of $107 million, it highlighted.
A total of 19 states are expected to receive allocations of over $1 billion, with the top 10 allocations being in Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Texas and California—the two most populous U.S. states—top the funding list at $3.1 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively.
“With these allocations and other Biden administration investments, all 50 states, DC, and the territories now have the resources to connect every resident and small business to reliable, affordable high-speed internet by 2030,” the White House said.
By the end of the year, states are expected to submit initial plans outlining how they propose to use the money, and the funding won’t begin to be distributed until those plans are approved by the Department of Commerce, which could take until 2025. Once approved, states can begin awarding grants to telecommunications companies, electric cooperatives, and other broadband providers to build infrastructure that links homes and small businesses to the internet.
However, broadband companies such as Verizon, Comcast, Charter Communications, and AT&T have been hesitant to provide access to low-population, rural communities owing to the investments being expensive and the regions not offering many potential subscribers. The lack of broadband access drew attention during COVID-19 shutdowns that forced students into online schooling.
In a June 26 memo (pdf) obtained by news outlets, senior White House advisers Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon compared the broadband expansion to President Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts in 1936 to bring electricity to rural America.
“Just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered electricity to every home in America through his Rural Electrification Act, the announcement is part of President Biden’s broader effort to deliver investments, jobs, and opportunities directly to working and middle-class families across the country,” the memo reads.
‘Bidenomics’
The move will kick off the second leg of Biden’s tour highlighting how legislation passed by Congress during the first half of his term will affect average Americans.
“We have a historic opportunity here to make a real difference in people’s lives and making sure that we deliver on that potential is what we’re about every day and to make sure that people feel that at their kitchen table, in their communities, in their backyards,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said.
In addition to the broadband investment, Biden is also set to deliver a major economic speech in Chicago on Wednesday to highlight his vision for his so-called “Bidenomics,” according to the memo.
The speech, which will largely focus on Biden’s attempts to build a robust economy by focusing on the middle class over the wealthy, will outline the administration’s success in job creation. The memo noted that the economy has added more than 13 million jobs, including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs, since Biden took office.
“Bidenomics is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up—not the top down,” Dunn and Donilon wrote in the memo. “Implementing that economic vision and plan—and decisively turning the page on the era of trickle-down economics—has been the defining project of the Biden presidency.”
Reuters contributed to this report.