ReConnect Loan and Grant Program

What's in the Budget for Broadband?

This week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its proposed 2025 fiscal year (FY) budget. According to the White House, President Biden's top economic priority in the FY 2025 budget is to lower costs for American consumers–reducing junk fees, lowering healthcare costs, and the prices of everyday goods and services.

Broadband Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

On March 9, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (H.R. 4366) legislation that funds, through September 30, departments and agencies of the Federal Government covered by six appropriations bills. Here we look at broadband-related funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). 

Biden-Harris Administration Bringing High-Speed Internet, Clean Drinking Water and Modern Infrastructure to Tribal Communities

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA is making investments to provide clean drinking water, sanitary wastewater systems and affordable high-speed internet to people in Tribal communities. Secretary Vilsack made this announcement at the one of the nation’s largest Tribal economic development conferences, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Reservation Economic Summit (RES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. USDA is investing $58 million in Tribal

Fact Sheet: The President’s Budget Lowers Costs for the American People

President Biden is fighting to lower costs for American families and has made lowering costs his top domestic priority.

State of the Union Address

Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. ... Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. 

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill

The Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act provides $26.228 billion in total funding. The bill would provide $169,959,000 for US Department of Agriculture broadband programs including:

  • $40 million for Distance learning and telemedicine (DLT) grants
  • $9.6 million for Congressionally Directed Spending/earmarked DLT grants
  • $90 million for ReConnect Loans and Grants
  • $10.4 million for Reconnect earmarks
  • $20 million for Community Connect Grants 

Why ReConnect Now?

The US Department of Agriculture just announced a new round of ReConnect grants. These are grants that can only be used to serve the most rural places in the country, and one of the qualifications is the distance between the grant market and the nearest towns. The homes served by the grants must not have any broadband available at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. A grantee must serve every home in a grant area. It’s not going to be easy to find a grant area that is rural and that has no homes where internet service providers claim the capability to deliver speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.

President Biden gave $90 billion to red America. The thank-you went to spam.

Poor infrastructure, small number of customers, bottom of the list: That is the story of rural broadband in the United States. The situation is much more than an annoyance for the 7 million U.S. households that still do not have access to broadband internet — 90 percent of them in rural areas. Many times that number are “underserved,” with speeds below 100 mbps, or have high-speed broadband infrastructure but can’t afford service.

New Broadband Funding Opportunity for Rural Communities

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced the latest window to receive applications for Rural eConnectivity (ReConnect) Program support to extend broadband networks in rural areas.

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $770 Million for Rural Infrastructure Projects During Investing in America Tour

During a visit to Edgecombe County, NC, a Rural Partners Network community, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden announced that USDA is funding 216 projects in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands to bring high-speed internet, clean water, state-of-the-art infrastructure and economic growth to rural communities as part of President Biden's Investing in America agenda. USDA is investing in $51.7 million to expand access to high-speed internet for people in rural areas across the country thr

Broadband's Role in Federal Equity Action Plans

Through the implementation of two Executive Orders on equity and President Joe Biden's Investing in America Agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to advance opportunity and make real the promise of America for everyone.  In the rural South and dense 

FOCUS Broadband Completes USDA ReConnect Grant in Columbus County (NC)

FOCUS Broadband announced the completion of its ReConnect Grant in Columbus County (NC). With the project’s completion, more than 2,750 homes and businesses in rural parts of the county surrounding Tabor City, Hallsboro, Bolton, Lake Waccamaw, and areas north of Whiteville now have access to high-speed fiber optic internet services. This project was made possible through a $7.9 million ReConnect grant awarded to the company by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in December of 2019.

USDA Highlights 2023 Successes in Serving Farmers, Families and Communities

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is marking the end of 2023 by highlighting on-the-ground projects and partnerships that are building economic prosperity for farmers, families, and communities nationwide.

President Biden Signs Farm Bill Extension, Stopgap Funding for USDA Broadband

President Biden signed an extension to the Farm Bill as part of a new appropriations package aimed at averting a government shutdown. Executives from NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and WTA—Advocates for Rural Broadband  Executives from NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and WTA—Advocates for Rural Broadband explained that the bill authorizes US Department of Agriculture to continue to operate broadband programs included in the 2018 Farm Bill through September 2024.

Year Two of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law at USDA

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been helping to close the digital divide in rural America by building, improving, and acquiring the facilities and equipment needed to deliver high-speed internet through the ReConnect Program. High-speed internet connects rural communities to jobs, telemedicine and distance learning, farmers with new technologies and the real-time information they need to stay competitive, and helps small businesses develop their markets.

Here's How the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is Delivering Broadband in Your State

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is, in part, a $65 billion investment in closing the digital divide. To mark the law's second anniversary of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the White House released state-by-state fact sheets with information about how funding from the law is helping to deploy broadband networks where they haven't reached before while also connecting and keeping connected low-income households around the country.

The Biden-Harris Administration is taking actions to improve the health of rural communities and help rural health care providers stay open

The Biden-Harris Administration is taking actions to improve the health of rural communities and help rural health care providers stay open. These actions:

President Biden Announces Over $5 Billion to Support Rural Communities

President Joe Biden announced over $5 billion in new investments from his Investing in America agenda—including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—to advance rural prosperity, economic development, competition, and sustainability. $274 Million to Expand Critical Rural High-Speed Internet Infrastructure: the Department of Agriculture announced nearly $274 million across 16 grant and loan awards to expand access to high-speed internet for people living and working across eight states.

Reinventing ReConnect

It’s my understanding that the annual Agriculture Reauthorization Bill includes new money for the ReConnect grant program that is administered by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), which is part of the Department of Agriculture. The ReConnect grants only fund areas that are remote and include a test that gives priorities to grant areas that are the farthest distance from towns and cities. There have been changes in the broadband industry that have made it harder each year to define a ReConnect grant area. The RUS grant rules favor grant requests that cover large contiguous areas.

FOCUS Broadband Brings Fiber to Rural North Carolina, Grant by Grant

In the past five years, FOCUS Broadband has gone from deploying fiber connectivity to just two North Carolina counties to eight, nearly doubling its number of customers from 36,000 to 63,000.

TCC Awarded $35 Million Grant to Bring Broadband to Rural Alaskan Villages

The Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) was awarded a $35 million grant to install affordable, reliable high-speed fiber broadband in the three underserved TCC village communities of Venetie, Chalkyitsik, and Circle (AK). The project is part of the Alaska FiberOptic Project, which is a larger collaboration between Calista Corporation; Doyon, Limited; Gana-A ‘Yoo Limited; Tanana Chiefs Conference; and Alaska Communications to connect more than 20 communities in the Yukon and Kuskokwim regions, beginning in Fairbanks and extending to the

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $700 Million to Connect People in Rural Areas to High-Speed Internet

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made $714 million in grants and loans to connect thousands of rural residents, farmers and business owners in 19 states to reliable, affordable high-speed internet.

Sens. Bennet and Budd Introduce Legislation to Connect More Rural Communities to High-Speed Internet

Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced the Connecting Our Neighbors to Networks and Ensuring Competitive Telecommunications (CONNECT) Act of 2023 to reform the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) ReConnect Loan and Grant Program.

North Dakota Providers Break Ground on Government-Funded Fiber Broadband Builds

Five providers that offer service in eastern North Dakota broke ground simultaneously on fiber projects funded, in part, through state and federal broadband programs.