US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, on June 21, 2023, as he travels back to the White House.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is kicking off a greater than $42 billion plan to present every American household access to high-speed web by 2030.
The funds, already allotted by Congress through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and overseen by the Department of Commerce, are slated to be divvied up over the following two years through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. The initiative is the following stage of Biden’s push to speculate in America ahead of his re-election bid.
“Whether it’s connecting people to the digital economy, manufacturing fiber optic cable in America, or creating good paying jobs constructing web infrastructure within the states, the investments we’re announcing will increase our competitiveness and spur economic growth across the country for years to return,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Each state will receive a minimum of $107 million, with 19 states receiving over $1 billion. Texas is slated to receive greater than $3.3 billion under this system.
White House officials compared the plan to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s effort to bring electricity to rural America within the Nineteen Thirties.
“Put simply, high-speed web is a necessity in today’s society,” said Mitch Landrieu, White House Infrastructure Coordinator. “President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to leaving no community behind as we connect everyone in America to high-speed web.”
Greater than 7% of the country, or greater than 8.5 million homes and small businesses, is taken into account underserved, with web speed below the federal government’s standards of not less than 25 megabits per second for downloads and three Mbps for uploads.
