Spanberger Leads Bipartisan Effort to Reject Proposed Cuts to Federal Support for High-Speed Broadband Internet Projects, Calls for Increased Investment in USDA ReConnect Program

Press Release

U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger today led a letter with 16 of her House colleagues calling on U.S. Senate and U.S. House appropriators to prioritize funding for high-speed broadband internet infrastructure projects in Central Virginia and across the country and reject proposed cuts included in the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2021 funding bill.

In the letter, Spanberger called on leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies to increase federal investment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Rural eConnectivity Pilot Program (ReConnect Program). The ReConnect Program partners with businesses and local officials to expand high-speed internet infrastructure and increase e-Connectivity in rural and underserved communities across the country.

This effort responds directly to concerns raised by rural internet providers and local government leaders in Virginia's Seventh District.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright spotlight on the disparities that exist across the country between those who have broadband and those who do not," Spanberger's letter states. "These disparities have real public health and economic impacts -- and not just during a public health crisis. In the midst of this crisis, millions of Americans find themselves without the ability to access a wide range of important services, including e-learning for children being schooled at home, video conferencing to work from home and stay in touch with our loved ones, and telehealth services that help flatten the curve by keeping those feeling ill at home."

The letter continues, "Cutting funding to this program, as the Senate bill would do, would not only be a failure to meet the demands already placed on the ReConnect program but would also be a failure to meet the needs of millions of Americans living in rural communities at a time when the challenges facing those without broadband have already been significantly exacerbated. Economic mobility and access to the modern economy of Americans should not be determined by their zip code. Access to reliable high-speed internet is fundamentally an issue of opportunity and equity."

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