Access to Broadband

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DELGADO. Mr. Speaker, as we work through this year's appropriations package, I want to thank my colleagues for passing my amendment to fix our broken broadband mapping system.

Access to broadband is a timely and urgent need in my district, and if we don't address how we map and evaluate who has high-speed Internet, small business owners, students, and farmers will be left behind.

The FCC's recent Broadband Deployment Report states that more than 21 million Americans lack access to high-speed internet, but everyone in this body and back home knows there are many more out there.

The issue is that we evaluate broadband coverage based on census- block mapping. In other words, if one house on one block can purchase coverage, the whole block is deemed ``served.''

We will never close the digital divide relying on bad data. My amendment prevents the National Telecommunications and Information Administration from relying solely on census-block data for broadband availability maps.

Bad data yields bad maps, and this critical amendment will put an end to it. I thank my colleagues for joining me in support of this crucial amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source