Congressman Fred Upton is pushing a bill to increase broadband access as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. He tells WSJM News the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act would speed up the distribution of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, meaning more than $1 billion in the next ten years to roll out rural broadband in Michigan.
“We know that much of American is unable to connect with broadband, if they’re in a rural area, in particular,” Upton said. “We’ve been working to find an alternative to that, and in fact, we have found one.”
Upton says during the pandemic, it’s going to be all the more important for everyone to have internet.
“A lot of kids are going to have to rely on e-learning for at least a day or two every single week, and for those communities without broadband, without that ability to reach out to the school, they will only be left behind.”
The act would allocate $20.4 billion to build rural broadband much faster than the FCC’s original timeline for the Digital Opportunity Fund. Upton says there’s been progress on advancing the bill, and he hopes it can be approved this summer.
