Posted: | July 28, 2020 11:31 AM |
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From: | Representative Pam Snyder |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Increasing Broadband to Unserved and Underserved Areas |
Access to high-speed internet has become vital to families across Pennsylvania. This is more evident with so many people working from home and more schools providing online education because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone deserves access to high speed internet whether you live on a farm in Greene County or in high-rise in Philadelphia. In order to help families living in our underserved and unserved areas, I will be introducing legislation which would provide $50 million from the federal CARES Act to expand access to broadband internet. The bill will create a grant program overseen by the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and ensure that monies are used to improve infrastructure and enable families to obtain access to broadband. DCED will determine unserved and underserved areas and award the grants under the program. I ask that you support this legislation and help give families and communities across Pennsylvania fair and equal access to broadband internet. We cannot continue to allow our rural communities and underserved urban areas to keep falling behind when internet access, now more than ever, is so important to our everyday lives. |
Introduced as HB2786