(ConservativeJournal.org) – A $42.5 billion dollar program created under Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Investment Act to expand broadband internet access to rural American towns hasn’t resulted in a single home being granted high-speed internet access since it was signed into law in November 2021.
Industry representatives and officials are highlighting that the program has ridiculously cumbersome and left-leaning requirements, or bureaucratic red-tape prohibiting the very thing that the program was designed to do: expand internet access. Additionally, officials with the Biden administration aren’t expecting any actual work to begin until 2025 or 2026.
Some of the requirements for accessing the funds include compliance with environmental mandates, the use of union labor, and specifically prioritizing unions that employ “justice-impacted” individuals aka former felons and parolees. Bureaucrats installed by Biden at the Commerce Department also want to control what companies can charge for internet access.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brandan Carr suggested the program won’t be complete until 2030, taking nearly a decade to bring internet access to places where folks are still restricted to dial-up or forced to purchase satellite technology. Carr said that no work has been done so far.
Alan Davidson is head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration; he’s in charge of the program. Davidson cited the need for two years of “planning and preparation” when legislators asked him for an explanation during a House hearing in May. Davidson told them that shovels wouldn’t be in the ground until “2025, 2026.”
Critics highlighted ridiculous requirements delaying the program’s execution which were added onto it after the program was passed into law by Biden-appointed bureaucrats like Davidson. Additions include: requirements to hire union workers – uncommon in rural jurisdictions, prioritizing employing ex-cons for labor, requirements for extensive environmental impact studies, and use of fiber optic lines over other broadband technology.
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