USDA funds for rural broadband service under investigation

Here is another sorry report on the failure of U.S. efforts to bring broadband to underserved communities. A U.S. House of Representatives’ committee is investigating allegations that money from a program to bring broadband to rural areas has mostly been spent to enhance services in areas that already have it.Here is another sorry report on the failure of U.S. efforts to bring broadband service to underserved communities. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Committee is investigating allegations that money from a $1.2 billion program to improve service in rural areas has mostly subsidized loans to companies enhancing service in areas that already have service.

According to a report in The Washington Post, Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn) told James Andrew, administrator of the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service at a hearing early this month, “If you don’t fix this, I guarantee you this committee will. I don’t know why it should be this hard.”

The committee’s investigation was prompted by an earlier article in The Washington Post that revealed more than half the money for broadband development has gone to metropolitan areas or areas just outside them. For instance, a Houston Internet provider received $23 million in loans to bring service to affluent subdivisions, including one with million-dollar home and an equestrian center.

The committee is looking into spending patterns in a five-year, $1.2 billion rural development program which provides grants, loans and loan guarantees for new housing, small business opportunities, utilities and telecommunications services in rural areas.

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