Biden silent on municipal broadband as he makes $65B take care of Republicans

President Joe Biden standing at a dais and pointing as he speaks at a press conference.

Enlarge / President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure deal on the White Home on June 24, 2021. (credit score: Getty Pictures | Kevin Dietsch )

President Joe Biden introduced a $65 billion broadband-deployment deal Thursday with Senate Republicans and Democrats, however he supplied no particulars on whether or not the plan will prioritize municipal broadband networks because the president initially proposed.

Congressional Republicans have tried to ban municipal broadband nationwide, so it is extremely unlikely that they’d have agreed to Biden’s acknowledged purpose of giving public networks precedence over personal ISPs within the subsequent huge spherical of presidency subsidies. Biden in March proposed $100 billion for broadband over eight years and a provision to prioritize “assist for broadband networks owned, operated by, or affiliated with native governments, non-profits, and co-operatives—suppliers with much less strain to show income and with a dedication to serving complete communities.”

Eleven Senate Republicans, 9 Democrats, and an impartial who caucuses with Democrats agreed on the $65 billion broadband plan as half of a bigger $1.2 trillion infrastructure framework. The actual fact sheet launched by Biden offers no element on how the funding might be distributed, but it surely says the $65 billion can pay for “common broadband infrastructure.”

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