On the recordJune 7, 2023
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, 46 million Americans live in rural areas. This includes 35 percent of the residents in my home State of Nebraska. Often, in the government, we focus on the majority of Americans living in urban population hubs, but we have just as much of an obligation to the millions of rural citizens in our country. Communications access is foundational to our quality of life, especially in rural areas where the closest neighbor can be many miles away. And that is what I want to focus on today. As a member of the Senate Commerce and Agriculture Committees, I have the privilege of regularly advancing communications policy that benefits all Americans, including those in rural areas. I have led multiple pieces of legislation to improve broadband mapping to benefit unserved rural areas, including the broadband funding map that the President signed into law as part of the bipartisan infrastructure package. It is vital that every last mile and acre of our country has access to reliable internet, whether for telehealth appointments or to make use of the more efficient agricultural technologies. But broadband isn't the only type of communication rural communities rely on, especially for households without internet service. They rely on television programming to keep updated about the world around them.…
