How Intermountain West states rate for broadband stimulus funds | Sharon Fisher | Politics | NewWest.Net

In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The deadline for submissions for the first phase was August of this year.

The first phase awards $4 billion, a little more than half of the total $7.2 billion, according to Matt Mitchell of The LinkAMERICA Alliance, who spoke at July’s Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) conference in Boise...