Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3293, the Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act which was introduced by Representatives Duncan and Craig. As this year comes to a close and with an eye towards 2025, I am excited to see real progress in the year ahead on many of the broadband deployment efforts, including in the bipartisan infrastructure law. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission laid so much important groundwork over the past 2 years, notably creating accurate and reliable broadband availability maps, so that infrastructure dollars will go to communities where they truly are needed. In the coming year, many projects funded under the $42 billion BEAD program will begin to break ground and connect for the first time unserved and underserved communities to high-speed internet. Communication providers are zeroing in on project areas and preparing plans at the most granular level. In the course of this work, providers will find that in many cases the most direct route to lay broadband infrastructure requires traversing lands owned and managed by the Federal Government. In central Florida, we have a lot of Federal lands around Cape Canaveral and Avon Park Air Force Range. We have a lot of national parks in and around our area as well, so we know this well.…”