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Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Madam President, over the last several years, much has been made about the digital divide that exists here in America. The more digital the economy becomes, the bigger the divide between big cities and small towns.

As someone who still lives on a family farm in Davie County in North Carolina, I have always made it a priority to stand up for North Carolinians who don't have the advantage of large population centers. Rural Americans across our State and our Nation shouldn't have their economic opportunities diminished because of their ZIP Code.

One of the biggest challenges we face in bridging the digital divide is politicalization. An example of this is the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment--or BEAD--Program. This program provides ``over $42 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs'' across the country, but once the Biden administration got a hold of this funding, they began funneling it toward their liberal wish list instead of toward commonsense broadband deployment.

Another example is the Biden administration's Notice of Funding Opportunity, which gives favorable treatment to government-owned networks over private ones, and they load up that funding with climate mandates that drive up costs for these communities. This is fundamentally the wrong approach.

At the end of the day, what rural Americans are looking for is pretty straightforward: They want the highest quality internet for the most affordable price as quickly as possible.

This is not the time or place for social agendas or for partisan distractions. We have to keep our eye on bridging the digital divide so that rural Americans have a fair shot at opportunities where they can achieve their God-given potential. This is just one more way we can build a strong nation.

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