Some Telecom Projects Eligible for Funding in Leaked Trump Administration Infrastructure 'Principles'
"Funding principles” for the anticipated infrastructure legislative package pending from President Donald Trump’s administration include language that would make telecom and broadband projects eligible for funding in limited circumstances, said a draft we obtained Monday. Trump may release the full infrastructure proposal around the time of his Jan. 30 State of the Union address, with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., telling reporters last week a hearing on broadband issues could come soon after (see 1801170054).
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“We are not going to comment on the contents of a leaked document but look forward to presenting our plan in the near future,” a White House spokeswoman said. Grace Koh, National Economic Council technology, telecom and cybersecurity assistant, cautioned last month that the coming administration proposal is unlikely to contain stand-alone broadband funding, but said broadband would be an "asset class" eligible for general infrastructure funding (see 1712070016).
A “Rural Infrastructure Program,” which would comprise 25 percent of the total appropriations the administration envisions proposing, would in part cover eligible projects to deploy broadband and “other high-speed data and communications conduits,” the draft said. The program is aimed at encouraging “investment to enable rural economies,” partly by incentivizing states to “partner with local and private investment for completion and operation” of qualifying projects, the document said. Eighty percent of the funding for projects would go to state governments, and 20 percent would be reserved for rural performance grants. All funding under the rural program would be distributed as block grants and would need to be used for projects in rural areas with populations of less than 50,000 people. Trump signed an executive order and presidential memo earlier this month aimed at improving broadband deployments in rural areas, and lobbyists view those actions as limited in scope and requiring additional legislation (see 1801080063 and 1801110058).
The Trump administration draft outlined a “Transformative Projects Program” that would appropriate funding for “innovative and transformative” infrastructure projects in the telecom sector and others that are “unable to secure funding through private sector due to the uniqueness” of the project. Qualifying “projects must be exploratory and ground-breaking ideas that have more risk than standard infrastructure projects but offer a larger reward profile,” it said. State, local and tribal government projects and private projects with sponsorship from an “eligible public entity” would be able to seek this funding, which accounts for 10 percent of the total appropriations the administration envisions proposing, the document said.