The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the approval of broadband projects in four additional states under the Capital Projects Fund in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan: Kentucky, Alabama, Nevada and Texas.
Together, these states will use their funding to connect more than 292,000 homes and businesses to affordable, high-speed internet.
Kentucky is approved to receive $182.8 million for broadband infrastructure.
“We’ve got great news for Kentucky families,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “The U.S. Dept. of Treasury has approved our plan to invest $182 million dollars in federal funding for our high-speed internet infrastructure project. This funding is going to support access for 45,000 households and businesses.
“A lot of these areas are unserved right now,” Beshear added. “They need this technology to take advantage of all the great opportunities that we have coming our way. Expanding access to reliable, fast internet is going to improve the lives of Kentucky families, and it’s going to support our future economic growth.”
Kentucky’s award will fund the Kentucky Broadband Deployment Fund (BDF), a competitive grant program designed to provide affordable, reliable broadband service to locations that currently have no internet service, followed by areas that currently lack access to internet at speeds of 25/3 Mbps.
The program aims to enable funding to reach rural areas of the commonwealth that are hardest to serve.
Each of the internet service providers funded by the program will participate in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program a $30 per month subsidy for low-income families. The plan submitted to Treasury and being approved this week represents 100 percent of the state’s total allocation under the CPF program.
The Capital Projects Fund (CPF) provides $10 billion to states, territories, freely associated states, and Tribal governments to fund critical capital projects that enable work, education, and health monitoring in response to the public health emergency.
In addition to the $10 billion provided by the CPF, many governments are using a portion of their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds toward meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of connecting every American household to affordable, reliable high-speed internet.
Together, these American Rescue Plan programs and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are working in tandem to close the digital divide – deploying high-speed internet to those without access and lowering costs for those who cannot afford it.
Treasury began announcing state CPF awards in June of last year.
To date, 30 states have been approved to invest approximately $4.5 billion of CPF funding in affordable, reliable high-speed internet, which those states estimate will reach more than 1.2 million locations. Treasury will continue approving state and Tribal plans on a rolling basis.
