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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I rise this afternoon to discuss, along with a number of my other colleagues who share the understanding, the importance of broadband access, especially to rural America.

A recent study by the University of Kansas found that up to 1 million Kansans live in regions that lack access to high-speed broadband services. Often, rural areas have the worst quality broadband or, as is too often the case, they have no access to broadband.

The benefits of access to high-quality broadband are clear. They are known. We have worked hard to be in positions here in the U.S. Senate in which we are fully engaged on the issue of making sure that all Americans have access to this service. Broadband access is correlated with more jobs, greater economic growth, better healthcare outcomes, and increased educational performance.

This means our country will be weaker as we confront the economic and security challenges we are facing, including labor shortages, STEM education shortcomings, and the lagging American leadership in key technology areas. When millions are without broadband, we limit our potential as a nation.

Lack of access or lack of access to good-quality broadband is certainly a local issue. It is an individual issue. It is a local business, a local family, a local school, a local library issue. But the consequence of those individuals, those families, those schools being absent broadband service is a detriment to our Nation.

Recognizing the importance of access to high-quality broadband, Congress has allocated significant resources to help bridge the digital divide, but the first step in appropriately allocating those resources is knowing where the money needs to go.

I sponsored the Broadband DATA Act, which was enacted in 2020, to require the FCC to use granular data to create a more accurate and refined broadband map to better target areas so we know where the new investments are needed. Getting these maps right is critical and has not been easy. The first time I saw the maps that were developed, it was like, this doesn't reflect at all what I know about my home State of Kansas.

Congress has devoted significant resources. We were involved in the effort to allocate additional dollars so that broadband maps could be updated and the data could be improved and hopefully get the information correct. We have been working on this since 2020.

If the FCC maps aren't accurate, a large portion of funding will be poorly used, and areas in need won't get the resources required to increase access to broadband. Millions of dollars in new resources for Kansas rely upon the accuracy of the maps. It would be poor government and a waste of taxpayer dollars if the outcome is that we are only providing money to places that already have broadband service or have quality broadband service and once again forgetting, forgoing those that don't.

The FCC is required to allow Americans to challenge the inaccuracies within the maps, making certain the maps improve over time. After receiving feedback from Kansans over the last few weeks and months, a second version of the map was released at the end of May. I understand from talking with Kansans that this map is more accurate than the one before. Continued oversight of the FCC's work will be necessary, and I continue to work with my colleagues on those efforts.

Now that we know where the need exists--now that we better know where the need exists, we need to make certain that investments are appropriately targeted to those most in need and not waste it on overbuilding existing networks. We also must ensure that the program requirements encourage broadband providers to participate rather than discourage them with burdensome requirements that do not line up with congressional intent.

I also want to make certain that every dollar Congress has allocated to broadband deployment actually goes to broadband deployment, not back to the Treasury. This is why, in a bipartisan way, we have introduced legislation to ensure that broadband grants are not considered taxable income. This is particularly important as critical broadband deployment programs at the Department of Commerce allocate funds at the end of this month, just a few days from now. Every dollar taken back by Treasury represents a community remaining disconnected, and I encourage my colleagues to work with me so this is not the case.

As part of my oversight work as the ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee, I invited Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to Kansas to hear directly from Kansans about the challenges they face when deploying broadband across our State. She heard from County Commissioner Randy Leis about the benefits broadband access has brought to Meade County, including education and business opportunities. She also heard from a host of rural telephone and telecom providers about what they need from the Department of Commerce to successfully deploy broadband across Kansas.

During this visit, Secretary Raimondo--and I express my appreciation here today on the Senate floor. I appreciate her coming to my State to hear and see what is the circumstance. During this visit, Secretary Raimondo reiterated her commitment to provide every Kansan with access to high-quality broadband services.

To preserve the smalltown Kansas way of life that I and many Kansans and Senators here today value, I look forward to working with Federal and State officials to make certain that Kansas and particularly rural Kansans are connected to quality broadband service. Of all the things we do in my world to try to make sure Kansans have a bright future, one of the important ones is to make sure we have access to the technologies of today and tomorrow.

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