Feds announce latest round of broadband stimulus projects

President Obama announced today $795 million in USDA and Commerce Department grants and loans under the stimulus to bring high-speed Internet service to unserved or underserved areas. The projects (PDF) are expected to create 5,000 jobs up front and spur economic development in some of the nation's hardest-hit communities, according to a White House news release.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said late Thursday the grants from his department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration would build the "middle mile" connecting communities to sources of broadband, while Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said the money from USDA's Rural Utilities Service would connect end-users like homes, hospitals and schools to the middle mile.

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Vilsack: USDA investment should help rural America

Durango Herald

HILLSBORO, Mo. - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday the Obama administration is making new investments in rural America that should help reverse the economic decline seen in many small towns.

Vilsack laid out the administration's plan at a summit on rural economic issues in Hillsboro, Mo., about 40 miles south of St. Louis. New investments in broadband Internet, biofuels plants and small-scale farming will help create jobs in rural areas, Vilsack said.

While rural communities have lost jobs and residents for decades, they have a chance to regain them by producing fuel from crops and establishing Internet connections to other areas, he said. Vilsack told about 400 people who attended the gathering at Jefferson College that new attention - and investment - would flow from Washington.

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