Vice President Kamala Harris Promotes Broadband Investments

Vice President Kamala Harris talked up the broadband benefits of the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure package, which included $65 billion for broadband buildouts and adoption. Harris was tapped by President Biden early on to be his point person on the goal of universal internet access. Broadband was not a big Administration talking point in the run-up to the package's successful passage, though it did have a prominent place in the President's bill-signing ceremony. In a speech in North Carolina to promote the many infrastructure investments in the new law, Harris put on her broadband point person hat. "With this work we have done together, we will expand broadband in rural and urban areas," she said. As VP, Joe Biden stumped for broadband as a way to help small businesses compete with larger ones, small business acolyte being one of the issues on which President Obama had designated him point person. Harris talked that up as well. "Let’s think about access to high-speed Internet for our small businesses and how that helps and is a necessity for them to be able to do their important work," she said. Harris also talked about broadband's impact on telemedicine in rural areas and its creation of "good-paying union jobs."