The Biden administration announced $772.6 million Wednesday to support more than 200 projects in rural communities, addressing high-speed internet, drinking water and wastewater.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden made the announcement while in eastern North Carolina for the fourth in a series of the administration’s Investing in America events.
The projects, USDA said, “will benefit more than 1 million people living in remote areas of the country by providing reliable high-speed internet access, clean, safe water and a range of support for rural families, agricultural producers and small businesses.”
The funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Most of it – $644.2 million – will go to 158 rural utilities for clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems for 913,000 people in rural areas. For instance, USDA pointed to a project in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, that will build 12.25 miles of rural potable water piping infrastructure to two housing developments.
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Other investments announced Wednesday include $51.7 million to expand access to high-speed internet in rural areas, and $76.6 million in Rural Partners Network awards; those awards will go toward 32 projects in Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Brunetti’s Italian Bakery in West Virginia “will use a $150,000 Rural Energy for America Program grant to buy and install a 167-kilowatt array that will save the business nearly $14,000 a year in energy costs,” USDA said in its news release.
Also Wednesday, the department said it would start accepting applications on March 22 for its fifth round of funding for the ReConnect Program “to connect millions of people in rural America to affordable high-speed internet.”
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