Deb Fischer Presses Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick About Expanding Telecommunications Funding In Rural Areas

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During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) questioned Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick about broadband services and telecommunication investments.

Transcript

00:00Senator Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Secretary. Nice to see you. I appreciate

00:06the review that you're doing in the department over the programs that you have there and as you

00:14try to make taxpayer dollars be spent efficiently. Looking at broadband programs, the broadband

00:23funding map continues to be a major priority of mine. The map tracks all federal dollars being

00:29used for broadband deployment, as you know. And the goal is to avoid redundant overbuilding

00:37and wasteful funding. However, we have had issues with agencies that do not collect or

00:44report this data consistently, if at all. By law, NTIA has a key role to collect this data

00:52from federal agencies in addition to submitting their own program data to the FCC, which has

00:59crosses the maps. Will you commit to prioritizing NTIA's work to support the broadband funding

01:07map and ensure that these dollars are optimized? Sounds smart. Yes. Thank you. Are there any

01:14other areas where you think that NTIA's broadband programs can maximize funding to make sure that

01:20they meet the intended purposes? We are hard at work rigorously pursuing the details of NTIA to make

01:29sure it can be the most efficient and effective along the lines that you were discussing about

01:35telecommunications, both access and capacity for growth in America. You and I have talked about the

01:42BED program in the past, and I know you have your work cut out for you in reviewing that program,

01:49especially with all the red tape that the Biden administration created for that program.

01:55Do you have any idea on the timing for revising those BED program rules?

02:03Yes. So my expectation is we will put out the notice of funding opportunity, the NOFO,

02:08shortly, and then we would expect everyone to apply within 90 days. We're going to hold it hard

02:16at 90 days, and then I'm going to hold my department firm that within 90 days, if those applications are

02:23done without regard to favoring one technology over the other, just make sure we're giving the benefit

02:29of the bargain. What's the cheapest way to get broadband to these people, the most efficient way

02:35to do it? If they make that application, we will make all awards by the end of this year. So you had

02:41the Biden administration sitting on it for 30 months, right? And you're going to watch us distribute

02:46the money and get it out the door, provided the applications are, let's say, technologically

02:52agnostic. Just do the right thing for the American people. Let's get the broadband to the people

02:58for the most efficient way, and we will put out the money. I'm excited to see broadband deployment

03:07take place to areas that receive no service. We have a number of companies in Nebraska that are able to

03:18do that through the Universal Service Fund, through the BED program, to be able to get that connectivity

03:25out to these very sparsely populated areas. There's a vastness to my state as to others here.

03:35To be able to have that happen, the mapping, back to the mapping, is extremely important,

03:43but also to recognize, I think, the investment that many of these companies in my state and in other

03:50states have made and have been required to make. So I hope you will take that into consideration

03:58as you look at reaching these unserved areas, primarily unserved areas, that need to be focused on.

04:09Will you commit to working with many of us here that face those obstacles in order to make those

04:19opportunities available to our citizens? I'd be delighted to work with you so I understand your

04:23concerns and that we focus on them. Great, thank you. You have many bureaus and you have many programs

04:30to cover in making sure that the department uses taxpayer dollars efficiently, and among these are key

04:39grants that support Nebraska's development districts. I was pleased to see that they all received their

04:46grant approvals this week that greatly assists our rural communities across the state. As we move forward,

04:55can these development districts rely on consistent communication from the department about their

05:02economic planning grants? Communication should be at the top of our list, so that sounds like an excellent

05:11goal and strategy for us to try to achieve. I appreciate the openness you've had with my office. I hope that

05:18continues with all members of the Senate so that we can work together. You have an important job. You cover

05:26many, many, many areas. You have a broad jurisdiction and it's very important that these things get done and happen

05:34in a reasonable amount of time. So I thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Fisher, thank you. I'm going to follow up.

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