When the Biden Administration recently announced a record $42 billion investment in broadband internet, it was pitched as an investment in rural and underserved communities. A new study, however, found many of these funds went to wealthy, urban areas because of a questionable allocation methodology, according to Fox News.
The Broadband Equity Access and Development program was marketed as a way to “ensure that everyone in America has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet,” with an emphasis on underserved areas with spotty or expensive internet coverage.
A new report from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), however, found that not all of these funds went toward these goals. To decide how much each state would receive in these funds, the White House identified areas that lacked broadband internet in each state, with more areas lacking internet meaning more funding for the state.
Washington, D.C. was assessed as having 184 areas lacking internet, but 58 of them, almost one-third of the locations, were located in the Smithsonian National Zoo, raising questions about D.C.’s funding. In Delaware, a location designated as lacking internet was the Biden Environmental Training Center, a conference and retreat facility near President Biden’s home.
Funding in these dense, urban areas flies in the face of the original intent of the program, which was to bring internet coverage to rural and underserved areas. D.C. and Delaware were allotted over $547,000 and $52,000, respectively, for each location without broadband access, while the national median allocation for areas without connectivity averages $5,600 per location.
In other cases, wealthy areas received funding. Tuckernuck Island in Massachusetts will receive federal funding for broadband, despite mansions in the area selling for over a million dollars. Additionally, the area already receives ample internet coverage, just not of the kind this program aims to promote.
Making taxpayers in Kentucky and South Dakota pay for internet investments in D.C. and Delaware is unethical and counterproductive, but that’s exactly what this program seems to have accomplished.
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