WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the Agriculture Appropriations bill that just passed the Senate includes $425 million for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service’s broadband grant-loan pilot program, which is modeled after Gillibrand’s bipartisan Broadband Connections for Rural Opportunities Program (B-CROP) Act and will be used to help expand access to high-speed broadband internet service in high-need areas.
Telemedicine Grant Program to Address Opiod Crisis
This appropriations bill also includes $53 million for the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program, which will be used to provide telemedicine grants in rural communities. Specifically, $20 million of this funding will be used to help rural communities address the opioid crisis. The senators fought tirelessly to secure this funding in the just-passed Senate minibus appropriations bill, and vowed to see it signed into law, to bring high-speed broadband internet access to the rural communities across Upstate New York that need it most.
$435 Million Investment in Rural and Tribal Areas
Nationally, over a third of rural Americans and 41 percent of tribal residents lack access to broadband. The newly passed spending bill provides $425 million for a USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) grant-loan pilot program, created in last year’s omnibus appropriations bill, which would provide much-needed investments in improving broadband service in rural and tribal areas. The new grant-loan RUS program, modeled after Gillibrand’s bipartisan B-CROP Act, encourages more high-speed broadband to be installed in high-need areas by awarding grants, in combination with current USDA loan funding, to high-need rural and tribal areas. Under the legislation, grants can cover up to 50 percent of a project’s cost, or up to 75 percent of costs in remote, high-need areas. In March, Schumer and Gillibrand announced that the Fiscal Year 2018 omnibus spending bill provided $600 million to create the new USDA pilot program. The $425 million in additional funding included in the just-passed Agriculture Appropriations bill brings total funding for this critical program to over $1 billion.
$53 Million Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program
In addition, the spending package also includes $53 million for the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program, which helps rural communities improve their education and medical services through investments in better internet service and other technologies. These grants can be used to purchase equipment such as transmission facilities, audio equipment, interactive video equipment, and computer hardware, as well as technical assistance for eligible equipment, helping to expand the resources available for rural communities. Specifically, $20 million of this funding will be provided to communities that are combatting the opioid crisis.
