In this week’s Exformation episode, Will and Caden discuss the Broadband funding provisions detailed in the historic $1 Trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate this August. While previous proposals targeted at broadband access and infrastructure were overfunded, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act sent to the House is a better representation of what it will actually take to get Americans connected. By sending grants to the states to fund broadband programs, states will be able to experiment with the best ways to roll-out broadband infrastructure. But access to broadband, contrary to common belief, is not the end-all to economic growth.
Resources
- Kelsey Snell, The Senate Approves The $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill In A Historic Vote, NPR (August 10, 2021) [Link].
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, H.R.3684 [Link] (passed by the Senate and sent to the House with Amendment).
- William Rinehart, An in-depth look at the broadband infrastructure bills, Benchmark (April 13, 2021) [Link].
- Exformation, Rural Broadband, CGO (May 18, 2021) [Link].
- Exformation, Digital Equity and the Digital Divide, CGO (June 15, 2021) [Link].
- Lauren Fox, Clare Foran, Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles, House Democrats face major divisions over infrastructure strategy, CNN (August 17, 2021) [Link].
- Mitchell Clark, The FCC finally made a new broadband map of the US, Verge (August 6, 2021) [Link].
- FCC, 4G LTE Coverage as of May 15, 2021 (AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon) [Link].
- Drew FitzGerald and David Harrison, Cable, Internet Companies Stand to Gain from Broadband Funding in Infrastructure Bill, Wall Street Journal (August 3, 2021) [Link].
- T. D. Stanley, Hristos Doucouliagos, and Piers Steel, Does ICT Generate Economic Growth? A Meta-regression Analysis, Wiley Online Library (March 23, 2018) [Link]
- Caden Rosenbaum, A year online: productivity growth came at a premium to personal wellbeing, Benchmark (March 22, 2021) [Link].
- Fred R. Wagner and Nathan Keithline, Will Streamlined NEPA and Permitting Provisions Sink the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill?, Venable LLP (August 3, 2021) [Link].
CGO scholars and fellows frequently comment on a variety of topics for the popular press. The views expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Growth and Opportunity or the views of Utah State University.