By Jarrett Renshaw
The White House on Monday unveiled how the government will divvy up $42 billion among the nation's 50 states to expand access to high-speed broadband by 2030.
The $42 billion in federal funding under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program is based on a newly released Federal Communications Commission coverage map that details gaps in access.
Texas and California - the two most populous U.S. states - top the funding list at $3.1 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively. But other less populous states like Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana cracked the top 10 list for funding due to lack of broadband access.
The move kicks off the second leg of President Joe Biden's tour highlighting how legislation passed by Congress during the first half of his term will affect average Americans, as his 2024 re-election bid gears up.
"We have an historic opportunity here to make a real difference in people's lives and making sure that we deliver on that potential is what we're about every day and to make sure that people feel that at their kitchen table, in their communities, in their backyards,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said.
Zients compared the broadband effort to President Franklin Roosevelt's efforts in 1936 to bring electricity to rural America. The administration estimates there are some 8.5 million locations in the U.S. that lack access to broadband connections.
Broadband companies such as Verizon, Comcast, Charter Communications and AT&T have been reluctant to provide access to low-population, rural communities because the investments are expensive and the regions do not offer a lot of subscribers. The lack of broadband access drew attention during COVID shutdowns that forced students into online schooling.
States are expected to submit initial plans later this year that will unlock 20% of the funding. Once the plans are finalized, which could take to 2025, the government will release the remaining money.
Biden is also set to give what White House officials describe as a major economic speech on Wednesday in Chicago, laying out so-called "Bidenomics," according to a memo from senior advisers Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon to congressional Democrats and other allies.
The speech will focus on Biden's attempts to build the economy by focusing on the middle class and not the wealthy. The advisers noted the economy has added more than 13 million jobs since Biden took office, including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
(This story has been corrected to say that California and Texas are the most populous U.S. states, not the largest, in paragraph 3 )
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Scott Malone, Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker)
