Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for cons…
Establishes a "Last Acre Program" in the Rural Electrification Act to award competitive grants and loans to broadband and wireless providers to deliver minimum 100/20 Mbps connectivity (or higher) to unserved and underserved agricultural land.
Sets definitions, a competitive bid and challenge process, buildout timelines (maximum four years), cybersecurity and reporting requirements, prioritized funding order, federal cost shares (up to 80 percent, 90 percent for limited‑resource farmers), annual data sharing with the FCC, and authorizes $20 million per year for FY2026–2030.
The bill also directs NASS to collect farm broadband adoption data and repeals two existing REA sections.
Modest-cost, technical rural broadband bill has reasonable bipartisan prospects, but passage depends on committee priorities and securing appropriations.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a well-structured substantive policy change that creates a defined program in statute, provides clear definitions, assigns implementation responsibility, establishes procedural timelines, and embeds reporting and data-sharing requirements. It appropriately integrates with existing law and anticipates several implementation challenges.
Liberals focus on equity, affordability, and higher funding needs.
Liberals focus on equity, affordability, and higher funding needs.
Likely broadly supportive of targeted rural broadband to advance precision agriculture and assist limited‑resource producers.
May view the program as a useful, targeted federal intervention but want stronger affordability, open access, and higher funding levels.
Some provisions—cybersecurity and data collection—align with oversight and equity goals; lack of explicit affordability or open‑access rules is a concern.
Generally supportive as a pragmatic, targeted effort to finish rural broadband deployments for farms.
Appreciates competitive bidding, challenge adjudication, timelines, and audit/reporting requirements, while noting funding modesty and need for clear compliance enforcement.
Mixed view: supports rural broadband for constituent benefit but cautious about new federal spending, program expansion, and compliance requirements.
May accept modest, targeted grants if tightly administered and not creating broad federal mandates or state preemption.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Modest-cost, technical rural broadband bill has reasonable bipartisan prospects, but passage depends on committee priorities and securing appropriations.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Liberals focus on equity, affordability, and higher funding needs.
Modest-cost, technical rural broadband bill has reasonable bipartisan prospects, but passage depends on committee priorities and securing a…
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a well-structured substantive policy change that creates a defined program in statute, provides clear definitions, assigns implementation responsibility, establish…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.