Hudson introduces rural broadband bill

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson hopes a bill he introduced in Congress recently will help people in rural areas, including Lee County, receive broadband internet access.

Hudson's 21st Century Broadband Deployment Act is designed to help expand internet access in rural and unserved communities.

"The pandemic has exposed the new haves ands have-nots in America — those with internet access and those without it," Hudson said in a visit to the offices of The Sanford Herald late last week. "As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I am determined to help close the digital divide across rural communities in North Carolina and around the country."

Hudson's proposal establishes two grant programs at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that will award up to $20 billion and $3 billion each over five years. The grant programs would require the NTIA to use maps created by the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that federal broadband reaches unserved and rural areas. The programs would also promote public-private partnerships that have streamlined their permitting process so that federal support pays for broadband expansion and not red tape, according to Hudson.

"There are huge gaps (in internet) in Lee County, Harnett County, Moore County, Montgomery County and this part of the state," he said. "I think a lot of us understood that before, but a lot have woken up since the pandemic."

In addition to students and educators working from home on the internet, many people have done their jobs online as well. Hudson said many have also relied on telehealth that is conducted online.

"I've been a champion of telehealth for a long time," Hudson said. "One of the hurdles was that Medicare won't reimburse providers providing telehealth. A lot of our healthcare systems were doing it anyway because they saw the benefit of it. They were just eating the cost. During the pandemic, Medicare reimbursed for telehealth — I don't want to go back, I want to keep it going."

Hudson said the infrastructure isn't there to serve many communities via internet, whether fiber or using satellites.

"I think technology is helping us solve this problem of getting broadband this last mile, but cost is just one of the barriers," he said. "Just knowing accurately where those gaps are and spending the money there is one of the barriers. Accurate mapping is important. My grants are rural-focused and focused where the gaps are."

Hudson said there is bipartisan support for the idea, but "the devil is in the details."

"The Senate bill is a one-size fits all — where the haves are going to get more money and the have-nots may not get it," he said. "My bill bill focuses on the rural side. This is our proposal in the House, we're already working on it. The quickest we could do it would be to pass it this year and have grants go out beginning next year."

Hudson helped Moore County secure a similar grant last year.

"There are existing pots of money, but there's not much out there," Hudson said. "The USDA has a program and we sort of modeled this after that program. That's how we were able to get that money for Moore County. The money was allocated for it. It was a $3 million grant to Randolph Communications."

Hudson said he's hopeful the House will take up the proposal when it returns from its recess to take up the infrastructure package later this month.

"I look forward to advancing my bipartisan and common-sense legislation," he concluded.