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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, November 22, 2024
A little-noticed provision in the 2017 tax reform law could threaten the non-profit status of rural electric cooperatives if they use federal disaster aid or take advantage of a new initiative to expand broadband service.
The Federal Communications Commission is presiding over a tug-of-war in telecommunication regulations that will affect who gets licenses to own bits of a chunk of radio spectrum – regs that will broadly affect rural broadband development and access.
The Senate Commerce Committee has approved a bill that would create a task force to focus on the connectivity and technology needs of modern ag producers who are too often without broadband in their fields and ranches.
Waivers that refiners obtained from EPA eliminated demand for 1.12 billion gallons of ethanol last year, undermining requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard, says Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and FCC chair Ajit Pai joined a coalition of stakeholders on Wednesday to launch a series of listening sessions on the challenges – and opportunities -- in expanding broadband services in rural America.
The House Agriculture Committee approved a group of 15 Republican amendments to the panel’s farm bill that would modify a crop insurance restriction while addressing broadband, biotechnology, organic food standards and other issues.
Republicans expect to advance a farm bill in the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday despite Democratic anger over its reforms to food stamps, but the legislation also would make significant changes in policy and funding across many other sections, including conservation, rural development and horticulture.
The omnibus funding bill for 2018 that President Donald Trump signed into law last week specifically acknowledges “the importance of the deployment of wireless broadband services in rural areas of the United States.”
Expanding broadband internet to rural America won’t be easy or cheap. But if Microsoft is right, the rural/urban broadband gap could be eliminated within five years.
