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Senate to Cut $302 Million from Broadband Stimulus Funds

in Recovery Act by

WASHINGTON August 6, 2010 – Attached to yesterday’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage Bill was an amendment which removed “$302 million in Recovery Act funding provided to the Department of Commerce for broadband grants.” The bill passed the Senate 61-38.

Overall the amendment includes $7.5 billion in recessions as offsets.

House Speaker Pelosi has already called back the House from their August recess in order to vote on this bill.

Interestingly the sponsor of the amendment which removed the broadband funding, Senator Patty Murray (D- WA) has just introduced a bill to improve broadband. Senate bill 3710 entitled “A bill to improve broadband coverage and service throughout the United States, especially in rural and tribal areas, and spectrum coverage for public safety broadband communication services, and for other purposes.” The text of the bill has not yet been released.

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Rahul Gaitonde has been writing for BroadbandBreakfast.com since the fall of 2009, and in May of 2010 he became Deputy Editor. He was a fellow at George Mason University’s Long Term Governance Project, a researcher at the International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology and worked at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He holds a Masters of Public Policy from George Mason University, where his research focused on the economic and social benefits of broadband expansion. He has written extensively about Universal Service Fund reform, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and the Broadband Data Improvement Act

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