RUS Broadband Projects Under Scrutiny
Our Take:
For years, the cable industry has sounded alarm bells over the administration of money for broadband projects by the Rural Utilities Service. Politico found that roughly half of the nearly 300 projects the government agency approved as part of the 2009 Recovery Act have not yet drawn down the full amounts of funds they were awarded. More than 40 projects never got started at all. And if these networks do not draw all their cash by the end of September, they will have to forfeit what remains—as much as $277 million, Politico reported. It’s an issue Cablefax has followed for years. The stimulus rules for $7.2 billion in funding for broadband infrastructure loans and grants for RUS and NTIA drew the ire of the American Cable Association at the time. Problems included RUS giving preference to past borrowers. The GAO also has weighed in on the issue, recommending in 2010 more stimulus fund oversight. Check out Politico’s deep dive into the issue below.
In September 2011, as the U.S. economy continued to sputter in the shadow of the Great Recession, Jonathan Adelstein offered a bold promise on behalf of a tiny federal agency that had long strived to improve the lives of rural Americans. The administrator of the little-known Rural Utilities Service had just finished announcing $3.5 billion in aid to…
