News
The Reconnect broadband grant program administered by the USDA has become the subject of new proposed cuts which could eliminate it.
By Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
A proposed 2027 budget by the USDA has a 19 percent decrease in discretionary spending and would eliminate the agency’s ReConnect grant program for rural broadband.
In rural America, the ReConnect Loan and Grant Program has been a player on the broadband stage, awarding funds to cover the costs of construction, improvements, or acquisition of facilities and equipment in rural broadband deployments.
“The budget proposes canceling $40 million in unobligated balances from prior year funds within the ReConnect pilot program,” USDA’s budget summary reads.
Not the end of the road for ReConnect yet
While the situation looks dire for the program, Doug Dawson, president of CCG Consulting and author of the POTs and PANs blog, said “this may not be the end of the ReConnect story.”
Today, Dawson reminded readers that the U.S. Congress has the ultimate say in the budget.
He says on numerous occasions in the past, funding has been added to ReConnect during Congressional budget negotiations.
“If ReConnect dies, there will be almost no remaining federal broadband grant programs,” Dawson wrote. “There is still $500 million available to NTIA for Tribal grants, but that’s the only remaining funding I am aware of.”
Dawson added that the USDA’s argument for slashing the ReConnect program is that its duplicative of BEAD, the government’s massive multi-billion-dollar broadband spend.
As has been widely reported, the government’s BEAD efforts have also been scaled down. At least one state, New Mexico, has begun calling for the release of their full BEAD allocation.
Officials have pledged that remaining unused BEAD funds will still be spent on broadband, however.
“Unless somebody in Congress works hard to resurrect BEAD, the last broadband infrastructure grant program will soon be dead,” Dawson wrote.
USDA’s 2027 budget still proposes $200 million to be set aside for federally financed bank loans, for expanded deployment in rural areas. Additionally, the budget proposes $30 million for distance learning/telemedicine grants, also known as DLT grants.
Get this news in your inbox. Subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter!
