Manchin Committed To Creating Stand-alone Broadband Fund for Rate-of-Return Carriers
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is “committed to creating a stand-alone broadband fund for Rate-of-Return Carriers before the end of this year,” he plans to tell NTCA members Tuesday, according to prepared remarks for his speech. NTCA is turning its attention…
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to Capitol Hill this week for its 2015 legislative and policy conference in Washington. NTCA plans more than 200 meetings while its members are in town, a spokeswoman for the association told us. Much of the conference is closed to the media and the public, but the agenda shows that Hill staffers and lawmakers are speaking to NTCA members at the conference hotel. Two lawmakers, Manchin and Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, are scheduled to speak Tuesday during a kickoff breakfast event. “There are cost savings that we can, and should, realize through responsible reforms, and we should use this funding to support our rate-of-return carriers who are oftentimes the only provider in the communities they serve,” Manchin, a Commerce Committee member, will say. Manchin intends to affirm the need to leverage “public-private partnerships between companies like yours and our government” to “help continue to drive economic development, entrepreneurship and innovation across the country” and also emphasize his Commerce Committee priority “to expand broadband access so that every household, educational facility, business and municipality has access to high-speed Internet.” Young will speak for five to 10 minutes and intends to meet with some Iowans, his office told us. Monday, NTCA was scheduled to have heard from Commerce committee staffers from both parties and chambers -- Republican Ray Baum and Democrat Margaret McCarthy from the House and Republican Greg Orlando and Democrat Shawn Bone from the Senate. NTCA members will proceed to Hill and agency visits Tuesday at 9 a.m., the agenda said.