FSF's Long Raises Concerns as FCC Broadband Funding Map Deadline Nears
Policymakers should "take prompt steps to close loopholes that permit duplicate grants targeting a single area," wrote Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a blog Monday. Long noted the FCC has until May 15 to release a broadband…
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funding map highlighting areas where federal subsidies have been allocated for infrastructure deployment, saying "effective interagency coordination is essential" to ensuring funds are "used wisely." The broadband funding map and oversight efforts "will be hamstrung" until the Biden administration, Congress and agencies responsible for distributing federal subsidies act "to align program eligibility requirements so as to prevent overlapping grants targeting a single location due to technical variations buried in the fine print," Long said. A "key fact that many do not appreciate" is that "inconsistent eligibility requirements adopted by different programs" will open the door to "a single location receiving funding from multiple sources," he said.