Sam Brownback: “next week our nation will celebrate Independence Day. Yet, as we celebrate the land of opportunity that is America, we…”

“next week our nation will celebrate Independence Day. Yet, as we celebrate the land of opportunity that is America, we must keep in mind those who, even in this great nation, do not have the same opportunities as everyone else. In rural communities across the nation, an entire segment of our population does not have the opportunity to access powerful broadband communications services representing the high-speed, high-capacity on-ramps to the information super highway. Why? Because for all intents and purposes broadband does not exist in most of rural America. Broadband is increasing the speeds and capacity with which consumers and businesses alike access the Internet, and opening up a whole new world of information, e-commerce, real-time high quality telemedicine, distance learning, and entertainment. The power of broadband will level the playing field between rural and urban communities in a global economy. Today I rise to introduce the Rural Broadband Deployment Act of 2001 and the Broadband Deployment and Competition Enhancement Act of 2001.”