Texas To Receive $3.3B in Broadband Funds

Texas was the big winner on Monday as the White House announced where it planned to spend $42.5 billion in rural broadband expansion funds.

More than $3.3 billion will be coming to the Lone Star State. It’s part of the $1 trillion infrastructure law passed in 2021.

“We’re talking today about a major investment that we’re making in affordable, high-speed internet, all across the country,” President Joe Biden said Monday in a news conference.

The government required federal agencies to use a more accurate map in deciding where to allocate money.

“I’ve gotten letters and emails from across the country from people who are thrilled that after so many years of waiting, they are finally going to get high-speed internet,” Biden added.

Biden said the law was “the best thing that’s happened in rural America since the Rural Electrification Act,” referring to the push under President Franklin Roosevelt to bring electricity to farms nationwide.

Biden administration officials will spread out across America in the weeks to come, touting a so-called “Investing in America Tour.”

“You’ll see more announcements and ribbon cuttings in cities and towns across the country, throughout this tour — the president, the vice president, all of the cabinet in local communities — showing just that,” White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said.

The FCC says 8.5 million homes and businesses as “unserved” by a high-speed internet provider.

Every home will have internet access by 2030, Biden said.

“We’re not going to leave anyone behind,” he pledged.

Eighteen other states will receive more than $1 billion, including Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington. Every state is getting at least $107 million.

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is leading the rollout. He is leading a 15-person team charged with overseeing broadband’s expansion.

“It is arguably bigger than what happened in the New Deal, and I think it’s bigger than what happened in the Eisenhower Administration when they built the highway system,” Landrieu said in the spring, according to National Public Radio.

The Texas allocation adds to the $1.5 billion the state passed in this legislative session. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill to allow Texans to vote on broadband expansion in November. House Bill 9, filed by State Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin), was the legislation passed.

“The Legislature had the forethought to put up $1.5 billion this session toward further broadband deployment and to leverage the full potential of the federal funding set aside for the state,” A.J. Rodriguez, executive vice president of Texas 2036, a data-based think tank, told the Texas Tribune. “This is one of many crucial down payments they made this session. It targets Texas’ rural communities and underserved pockets of our urban areas so that those Texans can fully participate in the 21st-century digital economy.”

The Texas Cable Association on Monday released a statement that applauded the move.

“We look forward to working with state leaders to ensure unserved and underserved communities are prioritized for connectivity and that strong guardrails are established to protect these investments from wasteful abuse,” it said.