Sen. Deb Fischer wasted little time upon her arrival in Washington by voting against rural broadband that folks on the wrong side of the digital divide back home in Nebraska desperately needed.
On August 21, 2012, as Fischer was running her first race for the Senate, the Federal Communications Commission released their Eighth Broadband Progress Report. The agency found that in rural areas of Nebraska, 33% of the population was without access to fixed broadband meeting the speed benchmark of 25Mbps. On tribal lands, the situation was far worse, with 81.1% of the population lacking access.
But in June 2013, as the Senate was debating S.954, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013, Fischer voted against an amendment to the Senate farm bill proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy, who represented the nation’s most-rural state, Vermont. The Leahy amendment sought to establish a pilot program to bring gigabit Internet projects in rural areas. As many as five projects would be undertaken in the first phase. The amendment passed 48Y-38N.
A spokesman for Senator Leahy said the gigabit networks would not require new funding but would be funded through an existing program through USDA’s Rural Utilities Service. The spokesman said the initial plan was to award funding in the form of loans but that the final version of the amendment included grants.
It would be up to the RUS to determine where the gigabit networks would be built and the selection process would be similar to the one used today in awarding RUS grants and loans, the spokesman said.
“Next-generation gigabit networks have the potential to transform rural areas,” said Senator Leahy in an announcement about the amendment. “Rural America has so much to offer, but without the great equalizer of high-speed Internet, rural communities cannot live up to their full potential. Investing in next-generation networks now will help ensure that rural areas do not fall even farther behind.”