In its efforts to expand broadband access, the federal government has subsidized investment in rural areas that haven’t attracted private investment. The Government Accountability office identified over 100 federal programs—administered by 15 agencies—that could be used to expand access.
However, the number of programs has led to a fragmented, overlapping patchwork of funding. The GAO recommends synchronizing federal efforts with a national broadband strategy.
Congress asked the GAO to review federal broadband efforts. The GAO inventoried and analyzed broadband programs and interviewed 50 stakeholders, including broadband providers and local officials. It also spoke with federal officials from agencies with broadband programs about their programs and coordination efforts.
What GAO Found
While some federal broadband programs can be complementary, some stakeholders said it can be challenging to use programs together to boost overall broadband access, often because programs are targeted to specific needs or have certain restrictions. For example, a consultant told the GAO that clients have successfully used Economic Development Administration (EDA) and Appalachian Regional Commission grant programs together to support planning and deployment. “However, as two providers told us, while it is sometimes necessary to use multiple programs to support deployment projects, making the different programs work together is left to the program applicants,” states the GAO in its report.
When using programs in a complementary way, recipients may face unanticipated challenges. The GAO says a tribe it spoke with received a planning grant from EDA to conduct an engineering study for a broadband network and then received a ReConnect grant from USDA’s Rural Utility Service to construct the network. The tribe planned to use the same company for engineering and construction. However, according to RUS officials, program rules don’t allow that, to prevent conflicts of interest. “Therefore, the tribe used some of the ReConnect funds to pay another engineering company to inspect and certify the plans that had previously been done using the first grant, according to tribal officials. The tribe said the program rules and processes did not improve the design, and it added costs and time to the project,” says the GAO.
Agency officials said programmatic differences, including some set by statute, limit their ability to align programs. For example, programs may have differing definitions of eligible areas, populations, and broadband speeds. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is responsible for coordinating telecommunications matters across the executive branch, and at the end of 2020, gained additional responsibilities for improving broadband coordination. Improved alignment is needed to help address fragmentation and overlap, says the GAO.
The Executive Office of the President has not decided if a national strategy is needed, but it is well positioned to develop and implement one. A strategy to help better align programs could include legislative proposals for Congress. Without such a strategy, federal broadband efforts will not be fully coordinated, and thereby continue to risk overlap and duplication of effort.
Recommendations
GAO is making three recommendations, including (1) that NTIA identify key statutory limitations to program alignment and develop legislative proposals as appropriate, (2) NTIA should direct the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth to regularly seek and incorporate user feedback when updating the BroadbandUSA Federal Funding Guide and (3) that the Executive Office of the President develop and implement a national broadband strategy. NTIA agreed with the recommendations. The Executive Office of the President did not take a position.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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