Political Quotes

“Mr. President, if anyone in this body said the Government could invest $40 million and, in less than a year, generate commitments to invest or leverage $1.2 billion in job-creating, productivity-enhancing and life-improving infrastructure in some of America's most rural and remote areas, I would suspect the Members of this body and the public at large would judge that to be a successful and exciting economic development strategy. That is exactly what has happened. This broadband loan program is administered by the Rural Utility Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. In 10 short months the RUS broadband loan program has generated about $1 billion in applications, primarily in Treasury rate-of-interest loans that contain at least 20 percent equity leverage. That is a pretty good return. Let me build on what my friend from North Dakota said. I was pretty small when the debate on REA started, the Rural Electrification Administration. There is not one Senator in this body who has not gone to an annual meeting of an REA. My first line is always: If it had not been for REA, in the country areas we would be watching television by candlelight. That is a truism. Now we are in a different era. We are in an era when there is an infrastructure of the deployment of broadband.”