[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
FIELD HEARING: GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA: HARVESTING THE DIGITAL AGE:
CONNECTING OUR COMMUNITIES FOR A BETTER FUTURE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT, AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
OCTOBER 21, 2019
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 116-052
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
38-059 WASHINGTON : 2020
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
JUDY CHU, California
MARC VEASEY, Texas
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
Adam Minehardt, Majority Staff Director
Melissa Jung, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Kevin Fitzpatrick, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Abby Finkenauer............................................. 1
Hon. John Joyce.................................................. 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Brandon W. Carson, Director, Planning & Community Development
Division, Southern Alleghenies Planning & Development
Commission, Altoona, PA........................................ 5
Mr. L. Michael Ross, EDP, President, FCADC, Chambersburg, PA..... 7
Mr. Anthony Angelini, Social Studies Teacher, New Oxford Middle
School, Conewago Valley School District, Gettysburg, PA........ 9
Mr. Brock Widerman, President, Adams County Farm Bureau,
Gettysburg, PA................................................. 11
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Brandon W. Carson, Director, Planning & Community
Development Division, Southern Alleghenies Planning &
Development Commission, Altoona, PA........................ 22
Mr. L. Michael Ross, EDP, President, FCADC, Chambersburg, PA. 26
Mr. Anthony Angelini, Social Studies Teacher, New Oxford
Middle School, Conewago Valley School District, Gettysburg,
PA......................................................... 29
Mr. Brock Widerman, President, Adams County Farm Bureau,
Gettysburg, PA............................................. 33
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
None.
HARVESTING THE DIGITAL AGE: CONNECTING OUR COMMUNITIES FOR A BETTER
FUTURE
----------
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Subcommittee on Rural Development,
Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:11 p.m., at
the Adams County Agricultural and Natural Resources Center, 670
Old Harrisburg Road, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Hon. Abby
Finkenauer [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Finkenauer and Joyce.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Good morning. The Committee will
come to order. I am so excited to be here today in Gettysburg,
and joined by my Ranking Member, Dr. Joyce. We are so grateful
to all the folks who came out today, especially our witnesses.
I know some of you drove quite a way to get here, so it means a
lot, and we are so excited. This is my first committee hearing
that's not in D.C., andf it's very, very important to be doing
this.
For those in attendance, I would just like to share some
background on the proceedings and how all this works. This is a
formal congressional field hearing of the House Committee on
Small Business. Due to this format, there is not an opportunity
for questions or comments from the audience. I do appreciate
your interest in today's topic, though, and hope that each of
you will help uplift the issues that come out of our discussion
today.
Field hearings play a very important role in the work of
our Committee. Traveling to Washington, D.C. and testifying
before Congress can be hard for a lot of folks across the
country given the cost it takes to either fly or drive. It can
prevent some very important voices from being heard. Field
hearings bring the work of our Committee to our districts and
offer our communities the opportunity to share their views on
issues that matter. I want to thank Dr. Joyce for inviting me
to this historic part of his district and our country.
Just like my district, farmers and small businesses here
are the backbone of the local and state economy. It is one of
the reasons why Dr. Joyce and I have been able to work across
the aisle to help address issues impacting communities like
ours, including trade and making sure that small towns in rural
areas are places that our next generation can build a life and
raise a family.
Today's hearing is an extension of that work, and I look
forward to hearing from each of our witnesses here today.
As I always like to remind folks on the Committee, our
farmers are also our small business owners. Everybody needs
access to high speed Internet. Today, it is all but impossible
to grow a business without it.
From precision agriculture, to selling products online, to
even taking a community college class online, broadband has
become a key part of economic opportunity. 19 million Americans
do not have access to high speed Internet, and those living in
rural parts of our country are much more likely not to have it.
While more than 98 percent of people living in urban centers
have access to high speed Internet, 1 in 4 Americans in rural
areas don't have it. Rural areas in Iowa, like Buchanan County,
have been left behind because of the costs and challenges
associated with building out the broadband infrastructure
needed to serve our smaller and more spread out population.
This has had a real impact on our economy and quality of life
in northeast Iowa.
I invited a commissioner from the Federal Communications
Commission, the leading government agency, in regulating and
overseeing broadband, out to my district. She and I heard
firsthand from our small business owners, farmers, school
superintendents, and healthcare providers, just how hard it is
to get high speed Internet in my district. A farmer showed us
how the new technology in his tractor needs to connect to
broadband to function correctly. We heard from healthcare
facilities that want to expand into telemedicine, but cannot do
so without high speed Internet. I know that your communities
face similar challenges, which is why this is so important to
be able to uplift today.
Through conversations with business owners across northeast
Iowa, I learned that a lack of access to broadband has an
especially detrimental effect on our small businesses. There
are small businesses in my district that cannot complete simple
online payment transactions because their Internet service goes
down multiple times a day. Others say they are paying sky high
prices, but still facing much slower internet speeds. For those
already struggling to compete against urban or online
competitors, they feel as though they are falling further and
further behind. And quite frankly, it shouldn't be that way.
Having reliable and affordable high-speed Internet
connection can make all the difference. In fact, small
businesses that are digitally connected double their earnings
per employee. They also see four times the revenue growth year
after year, and are three times more likely to create jobs.
That is why we must continue to coordinate federal resources
and make common-sense investments in broadband access.
I am proud to serve on the Congressional Task Force on
Rural Broadband, and I am working to ensure that investments in
rural broadband are included in any comprehensive
infrastructure package that passes through the House. The
Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of
Agriculture have made strides to develop broadband networks in
rural communities, but much more work is needed to be done.
According to the FCC national broadband map, residents in Iowa
and Pennsylvania both have nearly complete access to high speed
Internet, although we know that is simply not the case. The sad
reality is that there are more Americans without broadband
access than these maps indicate. When making significant
federal investments in broadband deployment, we need to be
working with accurate data. Without that, we cannot ensure the
funds and resources are going where they are needed. In fact, I
introduced legislation to make sure that we not only know which
areas have coverage, but also the quality and the cost of the
services that folks are receiving.
Last month, the FCC issued an order requiring new data
collection to gather more accurate information on broadband
accessibility. The Commission also proposed establishing a new
fund to help close the digital divide using this improved data.
We will be monitoring their progress on gathering the data and
implementing a new fund to make sure that it is done in a way
that helps our communities in need.
It has become painfully clear that private investment is
not enough here. I hope that today's discussion will highlight
ways that the federal government can help improve connectivity.
I truly thank each of the witnesses for joining us here today,
I look forward to your testimony, and I am very grateful that
Dr. Joyce and I were able to work together to do this today.
Before I introduce Dr. Joyce, I will just take a moment to
explain how all of this is going to work. After Dr. Joyce gives
his opening statement and introduces each of you, you will have
some time to give testimony. We ask that you keep your
statement around 5 minutes. After each of you speak, Dr. Joyce
and I will ask you questions. Don't worry if there is something
you didn't get to in your testimony. We will have plenty of
time to explore additional topics during the question and
answer portion.
Now, I would like to introduce my Ranking Member, Dr.
Joyce, for his opening statement and to introduce our
witnesses.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Chairwoman Finkenauer. Good
afternoon, and thank all of you for being with us today in
historic Gettysburg. It is Chairwoman Finkenauer's first trip
to Gettysburg, and she has promised it will not be her last.
There are many people to thank. First and foremost, these 4
expert witnesses for sharing your perspective on rural
broadband access. Special thanks to Adams County Agricultural
and Natural Resources Center for hosting us here today in this
beautiful facility. Most significantly, I would like to thank
the gentlelady from Iowa, Ms. Abby Finkenauer, who is the
Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Rural Development,
Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship. Like me, she is in
her first term in the House of Representatives, and she
represents a large part of rural Iowa. There are a lot of
similarities between our districts.
This is the sixth hearing that we have held together, and I
will tell you, we have become great friends along the way.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Finkenauer, for being here with
us today, and welcome to the Keystone State. Welcome to Adams
County.
In the 21st century, the internet has become an integral
part of American lives. From schools to industrial hubs to
apple and dairy farms, access to technology is synonymous with
one word. It is synonymous with success. Small businesses of
all industries require both reliable and affordable broadband
to compete in local, national, and international markets.
Today, sadly, more than 24 million Americans lack access to
high speed internet. The vast majority of those live in rural
communities. Here in Pennsylvania specifically, more than
800,000 people do not have access to reliable internet, and
those in rural areas have substantially slower connectivity
than those who live in larger urban areas. When comparing urban
and rural broadband deployment, 98 percent of urban America has
access to both fixed and mobile broadband, while unfortunately
here, only 68 percent of rural citizens have that same access.
I am committed to never allowing our rural communities to
be left behind.
It has been well-documented that broadband connectivity is
crucial for engagement in the modern economy, as well as the
social, educational, and political spheres. Today, with our
expert witnesses, we will address all of these areas.
Unfortunately, large telecommunication companies have
little incentive to invest in broadband infrastructure in areas
with low population density. Instead, small telecommunication
carriers are far more likely to invest in rural communities,
often because they are their own communities. Frequently,
however, these small firms face numerous challenges in their
efforts to increase broadband access. Without the ability to
disseminate the high costs of deployment or leverage economics
of scale, the small telecommunication companies often rely on
assistance from the Federal Communications Commission and the
Department of Agriculture to mitigate these high costs.
Back in Washington, we have heard from small telecom
providers that serve our rural areas that the recent
improvements to these programs have helped. But as always,
there is much more to be done, and we will work for those
improvements to be made in our upcoming legislation.
Over the last several years, Congress has enacted several
bipartisan efforts to increase the amount of resources
available to our communities, but the lack of clarity across
federal regulation leaves many of these programs underutilized.
Here in south central Pennsylvania, this must be addressed.
As you can see today, we have the opportunity to consider
an issue that directly impacts Americans in Pennsylvania, in
Iowa, and around the country.
Thank you to our witnesses for making your time to join us
today, and to share your experiences and your insights. Today's
hearing will bring your voices from the heart of rural south
central Pennsylvania back to our Nation's capital. I look very
much forward to this discussion, and I yield back.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. Joyce. Dr. Joyce will
introduce the witnesses.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Our first witness is Brandon Carson, the director of
planning and community development of Southern Allegheny's
Planning and Development Commission. Brandon and his team work
to provide project and funding development assistance in the
areas of infrastructure, transportation planning, and various
other community and economic development initiatives. In 2016,
Brandon was named to the Foremost Under 40 list by Pennsylvania
Business Central, honoring central Pennsylvania's next
generation of leaders. Mr. Carson is a graduate of the
University of Pittsburgh.
Our second witness is Mike Ross, who is the president of
the Franklin Area Development Corporation from Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania. Since its startup, he has been president in 1986.
The corporation is responsible for initiating, for
implementing, and promoting a comprehensive development plan
that is a strategy for all of Franklin County. Prior to the
FCADC, Mike spent more than 8 years with the Pennsylvania
Department of Commerce where he held several positions. Mike
has a B.A. in political science from Slippery Rock, and is a
graduate of the Economic Development Institution from Oklahoma
University.
Our third witness is Mr. Anthony Angelini, a language arts
and social studies teacher at New Oxford Middle School. He
serves as the social studies department curriculum leader, new
teacher mentor, and is an active member at the Conewago Valley
Education Association. In addition to his classroom and
leadership roles in the district, Tony is an adjunct instructor
in the education department at Gettysburg College, his alma
mater. He earned a B.A. degree from Gettysburg in 2006 and a
master's degree in teaching from Shippensburg University in
2014. In 2015, Mr. Angelini received the Milken Educator award,
the Oscars of teachers, which pays tribute to exemplary
elementary and secondary school faculty.
Our final witness is Brock Widerman, president of the Adams
County Farm Bureau. Brock's wife, Joy, is a herdsman for her
family's farm, the JoBo Holstein Farm, which I have visited,
and manages and operates 1,000 acres of land and nearly milks
1,000 milk cows a day. The JoBo Farm hosts school field trips
and an annual community picnic. On October 29, the farm will
host a virtual tour for 7th to 12th graders here in Adams
County.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. Joyce.
Mr. Carson, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF BRANDON CARSON, PLANNING AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT DIVISION, SOUTHERN ALLEGHENIES PLANNING AND
DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, ALTOONA, PA; L. MICHAEL ROSS, EDP,
PRESIDENT, FCADC, CHAMBERSBURG, PA; ANTHONY ANGELINI, SOCIAL
STUDIES TEACHER, NEW OXFORD MIDDLE SCHOOL, CONEWAGO VALLEY
SCHOOL DISTRICT, GETTYSBURG, PA; AND BROCK WIDERMAN, PRESIDENT,
ADAMS COUNTY FARM BUREAU, GETTYSBURG, PA
STATEMENT OF BRANDON CARSON
Mr. CARSON. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Finkenauer, Ranking
Member Dr. Joyce, and first, I would like to thank you for the
opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Brandon
Carson. I am the director of planning and community development
at the Southern Alleghenies Planning Commission in Altoona,
Pennsylvania.
Addressing the lack of broadband connectivity in our six-
county region is a priority. We have been engaged on a number
of fronts with hopes of advancing high speed deployment
projects in the region.
One of those efforts involved a fiber deployment in
Somerset County, and I would like to share my experiences from
that effort with you today.
Beginning in 2016, we worked with the Somerset County Board
of Commissioners on the proposed construction of a fiber
network to connect the four industrial parks in the county. The
hope was to secure additional funding to alleviate the
financial burden of fiber expansion within the county, and
facilitate the provision of much needed services to Somerset
County businesses and residents.
In 2017, the county was awarded over $1.5 million in
funding from the Economic Development Administration, or EDA,
and the Appalachian Regional Commission, which I will refer to
as the ARC. Those funds were awarded to implement the proposed
deployment in Somerset. Based on the EDA and ARC guidelines,
the intent was for the county to competitively procure a vendor
to construct and ultimately operate and maintain the fiber
network via a 20-year lease. I have included additional details
in my written testimony, but I will highlight a few of the
issues we encountered when trying to utilize federal funding on
this particular project.
In general, the regulatory requirements of the traditional
infrastructure projects that EDA in particular was accustomed
to did not fit neatly within the confines of a fiber deployment
project. As a result, EDA was forced to offer novel
interpretations of the respective regulations, all in an effort
to establish and define parameters for the oversight of the
project.
Firstly, EDA and ARC guidelines require the county to own
the fiber once it was constructed. This became a major sticking
point. Essentially, vendors were asked to put time, effort, and
capital into developing infrastructure that they may never own.
This was one of the biggest challenges when trying to advance
the project, and it is understood that this ownership
requirement is somewhat unique to EDA and ARC guidelines. For
example, grants awarded through the FCC and USDA RUS program
can go directly to a provider, even if that provider is a for-
profit entity. The guidelines for these programs were written
with broadband infrastructure in mind, while the EDA and ARC
regs were written for more traditional economic development
efforts like sewer, water, and road improvement projects,
infrastructure that is typically owned by a government entity.
We know that is not usually the case with broadband
infrastructure.
In addition to the ownership issue, there were challenges
with one of the restrictions in the ARC's code. Specifically,
Section 8.4 restrictions on assistance that prohibits ARC from
investing in projects that promote unfair competition between
businesses within the same immediate service area. During the
request for proposal process, or RFP, an incumbent provider in
the region contacted Somerset County to advise that they were
already providing broadband services in one or more of the
targeted industrial parks. Due to the restriction in the ARC's
code, this ultimately halted the ARC and EDA investments that
we had worked so hard to secure.
When interviewing businesses located in the parks about
their existing broadband service, it was evident that there
were real concerns about the existing reliability and
affordability of those services that were being offered. In
these situations, ARC is relying on the incumbent provider's
data as it relates to the areas served and speeds being
offered. Coverage maps are not always reliable, and speeds are
often overstated. Competition is necessary in order to
adequately serve residents and businesses in these rural areas;
however, ARC does not have any guidance from Congress that
suggests subsidizing a competitor is allowable under their
current code.
Moving forward, Congress may consider reviewing the
ownership requirement for broadband infrastructure and
investments implemented by EDA and ARC specifically. In
addition, authoring more clear and concise guidance for EDA and
ARC funded broadband projects would allow grantees to plan for
and better navigate the federal regulations to successfully
complete high-speed deployments.
Lastly, the unfair competition language in the ARC's code
is broad and open to interpretation. There is an opportunity to
set additional parameters to provide clarity and offer ARC with
guidance on better ways to implement these types of projects
when there are incumbent providers offering services in
portions of the proposed coverage area.
In summary, EDA and ARC have a unique opportunity to work
in concert with other federal agencies to improve broadband
connectivity to the rural parts of the country that so badly
need these subsidies. However, in order to do so, the federal
regulations they must abide by will need to be adapted to
better fit the current needs.
Thank you again for the opportunity to share my experience
on this particular project, and I look forward to any questions
you may have after.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Carson. We appreciate
it.
Mr. Ross, you now have 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF L. MICHAEL ROSS
Mr. ROSS. All right. Madam Chairwoman Finkenauer and
Ranking Member Dr. Joyce, I am grateful for the opportunity to
provide testimony today given the correlation of broadband
technology to economic development. My name is Mike Ross and I
am president of the Franklin County Area Development
Corporation. FCADC is our acronym.
As a matter of background, the FCADC is a 501(c)(6)
nonprofit corporation charged with formulating, implementing,
and promoting a comprehensive Franklin County-wide economic
development strategy that nourished plant growth and family
sustainable employment opportunities. The strategy is based on
the retention and expansion of existing companies, the
selection and attraction of new industries, and the startup of
new businesses. Over the past 33 years, our office has
facilitated 765 projects that have resulted in more than $2
billion of new capital investments in Franklin County. This
investment has impacted more than 50,000 jobs.
Franklin County is among the fastest growing counties in
Pennsylvania. Strategically located on the I-81 corridor and
with easy access to Interstates 78, 76, and 70, the county is
within a one-day drive of 50 percent of North American
population, including the major population centers in the
Midwest, Northeast, and Canada. Additionally, Franklin County
is within 75 minutes of the port of Baltimore, and three hours
from the port of Philadelphia. When combined with two class one
intermodal terminals, Franklin County is an ideal location for
myriad of industries, including manufacturing, transportation,
logistics, and defense. Target distribution center, Ulta Inc.,
Staples distribution, and Proctor & Gamble all have established
logistic centers in the county. Franklin County is also home to
manufacturers such as Manitowoc Crane Group, Volvo Construction
Equipment, JLG Industries, Epiroc Drilling Tools, and Johnson
Controls, as well as the Letterkenny Army Depot, to name a few.
In addition, Franklin County is among the top five agricultural
producing counties in the Commonwealth.
Infrastructure is the foundation of economic development.
Retaining, attracting, and/or supporting the start-up of
quality employers requires the availability of a full range of
public utilities, including telecommunications and broadband
technology. I have often remarked that economic development is
not possible unless you can flush a toilet. The same can be
true for broadband internet. Broadband needs to be considered
as part of our national public infrastructure, the same as
roads, water, sewer, ports, airports, rail networks, and a
reliable electric grid.
To state the obvious, we live in a globally connected
economy and four our companies to successfully compete,
especially those in rural America, they need to have high speed
internet and broadband connectivity. The transfer of medical as
well as technical documents, fabrication drawings and video
conferencing require high speed internet and broadband
connectivity. As I mentioned previously, Franklin county is
home to some of the most widely recognized manufacturers in the
world, and their ability to connect to their other locations is
critical. Moreover, as our national conversation has shifted to
the importance of education and workforce development, to
include online and distance learning, high speed internet has
become essential.
As it stands now, the lack of broadband capacity in rural
settings creates a disparity in educational opportunities and
outcomes. According to a June 2019 report from the Center for
Rural Pennsylvania entitled ``Broadband Availability and Access
in Rural Pennsylvania'', over 800,000 Pennsylvanians do not
have access to FCC levels of broadband connectivity, classified
as download speeds of a minimum of 25 megabytes per second.
Locally, our download speeds are abysmal, according to the
report. Download speeds in our area range from a low of 5.9
megabytes per second in Adams County, where we are right now,
and which is home to the Gettysburg Battlefield and Gettysburg
College, to 14 megabytes per second in Blair County, home of
Congressman Joyce. The point is, all of this is half--more
than--in Blair County, we are only half of where we should be.
None of the speeds are acceptable. It is important to note
that Governor Wolf, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania
Legislature, has created a bipartisan broadband initiative
whose goal is to address the challenges faced by rural
Pennsylvania. Launched in 2018, the Pennsylvania Broadband
Investment Incentive Program has made available $35 million in
financial assistance to private providers to expand service.
So, to recap, the availability of high-speed broadband
internet in rural America is critical to a vibrant, growing
economy and development of a highly skilled workforce that is
prepared to compete in an ever-increasingly connected global
economy.
So again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much, Mr. Ross.
And with that, Mr. Angelini will have 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY ANGELINI
Mr. ANGELINI. Okay. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Finkenauer
and Congressman Joyce. I am eager to speak about connecting our
communities, our students, and their families in order to close
the digital divide for a better future.
As an English and Social Studies teacher for 11 years at
New Oxford Middle School, it is a particular honor to be here.
In those two subjects, we emphasize the power of language to
create an impact and the responsibility we all have to
strengthen our communities through civic action. I even brought
one of my students, Sam, back there along with me to be a part
of this as well.
Conewago Valley is centered around New Oxford. Our
community does not have a YMCA. Our library is only open until
5:00 three nights a week. There is no Panera Bread. Forty-four
percent of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
For a significant portion of our students, then, the
district offers the only reliable access to high speed
internet. Even there, the FCC's E-Rate Program, which provides
discounts to schools like ours, has been instrumental in
strengthening access. In fact, five years ago we had only a 50
megabytes per second pipeline for the 4,000 students of our
district. One of our IT staff had me imagine inviting my 2,000
closest friends and their iPads over to watch Netflix. Our
network was basically attempting to do the same. In a typical
week, service failed at least twice. Teachers basically
abandoned lessons that had integrated tech. In the moment, it
felt like time was moving backwards.
With the E-Rate Program, careful budgeting, and support
from governmental grants, the district currently has a 400
megabytes per second connection. We are in line with the FCC's
old target to support streaming video, online collaboration,
and other digital learning. However, we still fall short of the
FCC's current target of 1 gigabyte for every 1,000 students.
In our community, the lack of equitable access is certainly
a harsh reality. We have students that do not have broadband
access at home. Those students face significant consequences.
Drawing from my experience, I hope to highlight three examples
of why closing this gap is so important: First, to ensure that
all of our students have access to the learning opportunities
available; second, to engage families with school; and third,
to ready our district for changes in policy ahead.
I am a member of our district's Road to Relevance team,
which we often call R2R. It is a 10-year plan to ensure that
our students are prepared to thrive today and excel tomorrow in
a changing global society. As part of that, our high school
students, like Sam, were assigned an iPad this year. Next year,
1:1 will expand to our middle school. To amplify the learning,
we rely on those tools and learning platforms like Schoology,
which are digital classrooms that stretch beyond our school
walls.
One common strategy we use is what is known as a flipped
classroom model. Students are assigned at-home video lessons,
and then class time is used more for application,
collaboration, and higher-level thinking. Alternatively, I
often use those videos to support struggling students after a
lesson ends. Just last week, students were writing position
papers. I recorded lessons on MLA citations and the conventions
of quotations, neither of which are easy for 12-year-olds. For
students, these resources give them access to lessons at their
fingertips. For those without access, the same resources are
out of reach.
Students often come to my room as soon as they get off the
bus in the morning, during lunch, or after school so that they
can complete those assignments when they cannot at home. For
13-year-olds, however, transportation is a barrier. Our school
right now is looking at revising our schedule to include a
resource period where they can have access to devices during
the school day, but such a change comes with cost. Every minute
given to the resource period is taking away from time for
language arts, math, or science.
Access impacts our students' families and their ability to
connect as well. Next month, we will host parent conferences.
It is an invaluable chance to strengthen relationships with
parents and strengthen the bonds between schools and home.
Families fiercely compete for the slots that take place after
5:00 p.m. As with so much of our lives, scheduling is now done
online through our digital gradebook. Though parents can easily
track grades with the phone app, the mobile version has its
limits. Viewing a grade is straightforward. Scheduling a
conference is not. It is the parents with access who can best
navigate the program.
Common Sense Media reports that families making over
$100,000 as a household were two and a half times more likely
to have a laptop and broadband access than those making under
$35,000. Within the first hours, almost all of the prime slots
for our conferences are claimed by the parents of students
already supported by extensive social and cultural capital. The
families who most need a strong bridge to the school are left
behind.
Finally, reliable access to digital resources is a systemic
issue that shapes policy decisions as well. Pennsylvania's Act
64 of 2019 allows schools to use flexible instructional days.
The law basically defines these as days when instruction is
delivered outside of school when normal operations are not
possible, due to weather, building damage, or other temporary
events. Passed with the best of intentions, the law has the
potential to widen the digital gap for our students. The
assumption of Act 64 is that students can access these digital
tools at home. It must be at home, since the most common cause
is expected to be snow, and it is not reasonable to expect
students to travel to a place with Wi-Fi. Further, many of my
students are not yet ready to be home alone. Instead, they stay
with caregivers, especially grandparents, who may be less
likely to have reliable access, particularly when responsible
for several children.
In anticipation of concerns, many districts have already
prepared paper lessons to go home in advance. For example, they
might give a bag distributed to a student the day before a
storm. Yet those lessons are often disconnected from the
curriculum and involve tasks that are far less engaging, far
less interactive, and far more likely to be below grade level.
The lack of reliable access has an impact on students,
their families, and public policy relevant to schools. I saw
that impact last week. I will experience it next month with
parent conferences, and I will need to deal with it in the
coming years with state policy.
Your hearing is aptly named. We want all students to be
able to reap the benefits of the digital age. Digital resources
offer opportunities for students and have the potential to open
wide the doors for future success. Policymakers can play a
critical role in leveling the field and eliminating the
barriers to that future as you consider building on the
bipartisan efforts in Congress that have already provided
essential resources to our schools and the communities they
serve.
Thank you.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Angelini, and with
that, I will yield to Mr. Widerman for 5 minutes. Did I say
your last name correctly?
Mr. WIDERMAN. Widerman.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Widerman, okay. Thank you so much.
STATEMENT OF BROCK WIDERMAN
Mr. WIDERMAN. Okay. Chairwoman Finkenauer, Ranking Member
Joyce, thank you for inviting me to speak on rural broadband
and agriculture. My name is Brock Widerman. I am the president
of Adams County Farm Bureau. My wife, Joy, is a partner/owner
of JoBo Holstein Farm, a family dairy and crop farm in
Gettysburg. I work on the farm as well, performing field work
and mechanical repairs. I offer today's testimony on behalf of
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the state's largest general farm
organization. My written testimony provides an expanded
perspective of the highlights I will cover during the hearing.
Broadband is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity. Having
spent my entire life in agriculture, growing up on a layer hen
operation before joining JoBo Holstein farm. I have seen the
growing importance of technology. Now technology is critical to
our everyday lives and fixed and mobile broadband is absolutely
essential to modern agricultural operations.
For those of us who have generally reliable broadband
access, it is sometimes easy to forget the role it plays in our
everyday lives. It is just how we do our jobs. As an example,
as our equipment becomes more advanced, repairing that
equipment becomes increasingly challenging. On my farm, I can't
always run down to the local store for parts. I have often used
the internet, particularly my phone, to research how to repair
equipment, order parts, or determine which stores may have the
needed parts, and for our more high-tech equipment, utilized
tech support from overseas. Clicking a few buttons from my
phone can often streamline a process that once may have
involved calling around to multiple stores or driving long
distances to locate parts and information needed to make a
repair.
But not all farmers have reliable broadband. Bethany and
Adam Coursen, farmers near State College, invested in robotic
milking devices to milk their cows, and also devices that
collected herd health. However, the lack of high-speed internet
has made it difficult to get the needed software upgrades and
prevents technicians from working remotely on their system.
They have been able to devise work arounds, such as cell phone
hotspot, but that is not how the system was designed.
Rural broadband is also essential for the quality of life
of rural Americans. High speed internet access allows
individuals to reach healthcare, educational services,
government agencies, and new business opportunities. Recently,
my two oldest children received iPads from their schools and
are expected to complete assignments on them. While my children
can complete their assignments at home, others aren't so
fortunate. David Bentrem, my fellow Farm Bureau member, whose
farm is in Washington County, lacks broadband access. He has to
take his daughter to the local McDonald's so she can obtain
internet access to complete her school assignments.
These are not isolated incidents. Twenty-nine percent of
rural Americans lack access to broadband. In Pennsylvania,
roughly 18 percent of rural citizens lack access to the
internet, or only have low speed options, and there are serious
flaws in the federally available maps and data collection
techniques, which hinders the availability to direct federal
funds to broadband buildout.
Given the recent financial challenges of farm economy, we
must utilize all the tools available to agriculture, especially
broadband technology. In fact, USDA found that if access to
broadband and adoption of digital agricultural technology
matched demand, U.S. agriculture would realize benefits
amounting to $64.5 billion annually.
The Farm Bureau appreciates the Subcommittee's interest in
this issue, and we look forward to working with you to make
sure all of agriculture has access to reliable fixed and mobile
broadband. Thank you.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much, Mr. Widerman.
Again, we are so grateful to have you all here today, and
we will now do a couple rounds of questions. I will have 5
minutes to ask questions, and then Dr. Joyce will have 5
minutes, and we will do that all over again as well, time
permitting. Sound good?
All right. Mr. Widerman--no. I keep saying it wrong.
Mr. WIDERMAN. Widerman.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Widerman. Thank you again so much
for being here. You have a farm with over 1,000 milking cows. I
always say that I grew up in a town with more cows than people,
but your farm itself has more cows than my entire town.
One thing I am curious about is how broadband access
impacts you personally. I know you also touched on how some of
your friends don't really have access. What are the options for
you and your wife for Internet service?
Mr. WIDERMAN. Currently we----
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Just see how you do.
Mr. WIDERMAN. Currently we have a provider that provides us
internet, and then we actually spent quite a considerable
amount of money on our farm to----
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Okay.
Mr. WIDERMAN.--bounce that around the farm, because it did
not reach everywhere we needed it to reach in the various
areas.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Interesting.
Mr. WIDERMAN. I do have a friend that works for AG Com, a
large feed mill in the area, and he lives 15 miles from here,
and all of his--I mean, basically he is in charge of
maintenance and all the IT work at AG Com, which is how it all
works. He has very poor internet access. I mean, he is able to
do his job from home. He can diagnose and pinpoint problems,
but he says that nothing else in the house can be running while
he is doing that----
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Oh, wow.
Mr. WIDERMAN.--or it ruins his connection that he is not
able to perform his job. So, that is a personal account that,
you know, I contacted him the other day and spoke with him
about it, and he said yeah, it is an issue. I mean, he says the
cost of it to do anything different--and basically his provider
pretty much told him you are on your own. I mean, we are not
going to run it down your road until you have more people on
your road. So----
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Wow. We had the FCC Commissioner
come out to my district. She came out to a farm and we were
showing her some of the newer precision ag equipment, and
talking about why it is important. We had a couple farmers
there as well. It was a father/son duo, bringing the
perspective of the next generation of farmers. They are pork
producers, and the son explained how they know exactly the
margins on every pound, because of the data on their iPad. He
pulls it up to show the Commissioner, and as he is pulling it
up, it won't load. It was a really good example of why rural
broadband access is an issue.
And our farmers don't just need technology on the farm when
they are there they need it when they are out and about.
Growing up around farms, I know farming is 24/7. With
technology, farmers have that freedom to be out and able to
check in on the operation, What does that freedom mean for your
business? Does that become more difficult if you don't have
reliable Internet access?
Mr. WIDERMAN. Actually, my wife is the herdsman at the
farm, and as far as herd health goes, all that is on the
internet.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Yeah.
Mr. WIDERMAN. I mean, their dairy plan that they have is
all run via the internet. So, if it is down and say, my wife
and I are away and there is a problem with a cow, she can't
look up any past history, milk records, anything like that to
determine whether--what the next step with that cow might be.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. What would that cost you if that
goes down, you can't get that information, and something
happens?
Mr. WIDERMAN. Well, if it is the life of the cow----
I mean, you can say $2,000 right there without--I mean, and
that doesn't put any value on the milk that you are losing from
her or anything.
So there is--the costs are never-ending when it comes to,
you know, the health of a cow and keeping going.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Absolutely. I think that folks don't
necessarily understand all the time how important that is. So,
thank you for that.
I have just a few more minutes, and then I will hand it
over to Dr. Joyce.
So, Mr. Angelini, you are dealing with a lack of rural
broadband access as well on a number of levels, just like our
teachers in Iowa. For one, you have to deal with homework a
little bit differently. What, in your perspective, does
internet access mean for kids' futures? What kind of
disadvantage does this put kids at if they don't have access,
whether it is at home or whether it is unreliable at school
compared to kids in other places in the country that have
broadband access?
Mr. ANGELINI. Yeah. I think the phrase I like the most is
the idea of the digital divide between our students who have
and the students who have not. We experience daily the students
who come in able to use a keyboard independently and the
students who can't because of what they are able to do at home,
and if we aren't able to intervene on that and close the gap,
we are keeping some students at arm's length and pushing others
further along to success. And that is where we need all the
help we can get. There are so many factors beyond our control
in our students' lives. Being able to provide them with the
tools and internet access they need to learn is something that
is within our control. And so, we are doing everything we can
to manage it.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much for your passion.
It is admirable, and we need more of you across the country.
With that, I am out of time, so I will yield to Dr. Joyce
for 5 minutes.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Chairwoman Finkenauer.
First of all, thank you to Brock Widerman for being here.
You know of our commitment to agriculture, particularly to the
dairy industry. Thank you, Mr. Tony Angelini, for the
educational perspective.
But I am going to pivot. I am going to pivot to the other
side of the table at this point in time, because rural
development, which is part of this Subcommittee, includes your
ability to step forward and to talk to us today about the need
for extensive rural broadband.
So, Mike Ross, I am going to start with you. I am going to
ask you if expanding rural broadband in Franklin, in Adams, in
Cumberland County, would you see additional economic benefits
to the community? Could you quantitate that as well?
Mr. ROSS. I don't know if I can quantitate it at this
point. There clearly would be additional economic development
that would take place. I think that broadband has become part
of the site location analysis that--when I started this role
that nobody even knew what we were talking about. But today, it
is clearly part of the analysis.
Interestingly, one of the places where we have difficulty
getting broadband capabilities is at Letterkenny, to that part
of the depot that has been privatized. They struggle with
getting high speed internet, and that has been impactful to all
the businesses locating out there, and to some extent, has
impeded some of the development to--that could have taken place
there.
But I think that one of the things--one point I would like
to tie to Mr. Angelini, and he is dead on. This divide is
significant. I don't think when we look at Pennsylvania as an
example that we realize that Pennsylvania is one of the most
rural states in the country, and so when we go to places--when
you think about Penn State, there is a lot of rural America
between here and State College. So when you get there, it--you
are kind of an oasis in the desert. But there is a lot of
challenges--and so you have young people who don't have the
same opportunities, and so they are not nearly as well prepared
to enter the workplace. And that right now is critical,
economic development and workforce development and having
people prepared, and we need more--we need folks to have
greater opportunities to be connected.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you for that. I think you brought an
interesting point up, Mike, that we should start, because
Chairwoman Finkenauer and I were discussing the extensive
nature--and this is going to lead into the question for Mr.
Carson. Pennsylvania 13, which is a new district by the
redistricting standards, is here in Adams County and includes
part of Cumberland County and Franklin County, where you come
from, Mike Ross. But it extends the entirety over 10 counties,
5 of them on the Maryland border, 5 of them north, partial
counties for some of them, Cumberland and Westmoreland. But it
includes over 8,000 farms to your point, very much similar to
our agricultural roots with the Chairwoman and I. And our
understanding and perhaps our ability to work together on these
issues that we were really put here with a purpose, and work
shoulder to shoulder trying to outline and make improvements in
those areas.
But you talked about--Mr. Carson, you talked about Somerset
County, which is on the western border of Pennsylvania 13, and
talked about trying to establish--and the obstacles that you
went through establishing rural broadband, and made, you know,
some suggestions on how to make those improvements with
legislation in the future.
You are an economic developer. You are a guy with vision.
Talk to us about how rural broadband, recognizing the extensive
nature of almost 150 miles east to west in Pennsylvania 13--
talk to us about what a more improved, a more developed rural
broadband system would mean in your world.
Mr. CARSON. Thank you for the question, and we are
embarking on just that. Given the issues that we have had in
Somerset with that fiber project, we are going back--taking a
couple steps back actually, and right now, we were just awarded
some funding from ARC to complete an eight county
infrastructure assessment that will look at the gaps in
broadband services in our region, opportunities for
deployments, the vertical assets that might be in place for
certain wireless deployments in the region, and community
bandwidth needs are some of the work elements that we are
looking at for this feasibility study.
That is going to move forward later this fall into next
spring, but the hope is we want to use that investigation to
form a broadband cooperative, which we think is going to be
absolutely necessary to advance some of these rural
deployments. With what we ran into in Somerset with the
incumbent providers, it was certainly an eye opener for us in
terms of how cutthroat the industry can be. So, we see a
cooperative as an opportunity to use state and federal funds
funneled down through a cooperative to partner with those
smaller providers in the region to offer services to those most
rural residents and businesses that need the service that they
currently are not getting.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you. Thank you for your answer.
Mr. Angelini, I am going to go back to the educators, and I
think for the purpose of the record, that I think Mr.
Widerman's children who have iPads might be students of yours.
Mr. ANGELINI. They are. They were never my students, but
they came through the district.
Mr. JOYCE. Students of your system. So, you talked about
how important it is, and let me--I have a son who has autism,
and keeping in contact with teachers throughout his education
was very important. But now that is done today very frequently
through internet connections, through ability to email and be
on boards to talk to people. Tell me how students with
disadvantages who don't have those--who are academically
disadvantaged and don't have access to broadband, does that
create additional problems for these students?
Mr. ANGELINI. Absolutely. You know, one of the things we
fear most is a student who is making a choice between exceeding
their parents' data plan, because it is their main source of
internet access, and doing their homework assignment. And we
are not just talking about students reading an email from a
teacher anymore. As we move forward, they are interacting with
streaming videos. They are creating media that they need to
upload. They are going through a host of different digital
resources, and all of those take more than just a few small
bytes of data that is coming through a cell phone. And the
primary access point for a lot of our students and their
families is the phone. So, anything that needs to go beyond
that, you really start to see that digital divide.
And when it comes to parent communication it is one thing
for me to be able to email a parent. It is a whole other thing
for me to be able to send a newsletter to a parent with
interactive videos that they can use on how to use the
Gradebook program or links to the different interactive
presentations we are doing in class, so that they can ask their
children how was the day, and they can get more of an answer
than just ``good.'' They can actually look and see what their
students were doing that day and follow up with them
individually. And so, some of our students have parents who can
do that, and others don't, and it makes a huge difference.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Mr. Angelini, and I yield back.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. Joyce. I will
recognize myself for another 5 minutes, and then will yield
back to Dr. Joyce. I know we are running over on time, so if
anybody does have to exit, no one will be offended. But we will
keep going here.
Mr. Ross, you said something interesting in your testimony.
You said you can't start a business if you can't flush a
toilet, right?
Mr. ROSS. Correct.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. It immediately made me think about a
time I was back in Iowa and talking to one of our smaller
Internet service providers. This provider is trying really hard
to get into towns where it looks like there is access, but
there is not. One of the things they heard in a small town was
it is easier right now for us to sell a house if it doesn't
have indoor plumbing than it would be if it doesn't have access
to the Internet. Obviously you need both, but it just
underscores how important Internet access is and how
interesting it was what you said.
Can you tell me an instance when poor access to Internet
has stifled an opportunity for new business growth or economic
development? Have you seen somebody wanting to come into a town
and then backing out due to Internet access or reliability
issues?
Mr. ROSS. We have had a situation where we have had a
couple of companies--and to put it in context for you--again, I
am going to go back to the Letterkenny Army Depot. We have a
national fully functioning depot who is contributing to our
national defense efforts every day, but it got realigned in
1995. And so, part of it has been converted to a private sector
industrial park, and surprisingly, we do not have high speed
internet out there. And we have had several companies who have
tried--who have attempted to locate or expand and that they
simply--they have backed away. They don't have it, and in fact,
we were just having the conversation, I know, out there about a
week ago, and so we are hoping to get Comcast out there. And
every time we--Comcast does have high speed capabilities, but
we have been unsuccessful in our efforts to get them to go out
there. And again, it becomes--you know, economies of scale come
into play unfortunately where some of the providers simply say
there is not enough demand, and the cost for us to be out there
is too expensive and we are not going to get the return we
desire right now.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Yeah, the ripple effect.
Mr. ROSS. Yeah. But so it is interesting, and I can
appreciate the comment from your friend in Iowa saying that we
could sell--give them outdoor plumbing. That is easier to do
than not have internet. And it really does--and I apologize for
the length of this, but this whole idea of workforce
development and when you see educators where you have children
who have access and those that don't, and as we go forward, it
creates a real divide as they prepare to enter post-secondary
education or the workforce. And it is a challenge for us.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Absolutely, especially when we have
workforce needs across the country.
Mr. ROSS. All across the country.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Yeah, this is not something we can
afford to be falling behind on.
Mr. Carson, I know you mentioned that the Economic
Development Administration and the Appalachian Region
Commission have a really unique opportunity to work with other
federal agencies to improve broadband connectivity, but that
these programs need to be changed. You already pointed out some
very specific issues with the grants in your testimony, but can
you talk about any other aspects of these programs that need to
be changed or feedback that you want to make sure that we leave
here with today?
Mr. CARSON. Yeah. I think ultimately it comes down to the
fact that both ARC and EDA, who are very close partners with
organizations like ours, Southern Alleghenies Planning and
Development Commission is an economic development district in
partnership with both EDA and ARC. So, we work closely with
these guys.
I want to make sure that I convey--I did speak with both of
them in advance about the testimony I was going to provide. I
want to convey to the Subcommittee that both of those agencies
wanted this project to work. They both invested a lot of time
and effort into figuring out a way to interpret the guidelines
so that we could advance the project. In the end, there was
still too much red tape, and I know there was a lot of
frustration from the folks at the county, because ultimately
they had invested about $200,000 in consulting services to get
the RFP ready and to get the project to the point where it was
ready to be bid. And those costs were not eligible as part of
the grant. So, when you introduce all this red tape and all
this uncertainty after the fact, if that guidance was clear and
concise on the front end and there was a good understanding of
what was to be expected, you know, via the federal funds, I
think that we would have had a successful project. I think that
we would have had vendors that were interested in bidding and
we would have a network that was very close to being up and
running. Instead, here we are about 3 years later, and it looks
like, you know, the grants are going to be terminated.
So, it is somewhat frustrating, but we are looking at it as
an opportunity to try to learn from that experience and do
everything we can to help ARC and EDA make some of those
changes. Because they get it. They get that as their code is
written, it is problematic. But when you are looking at
wireless deployments, which oftentimes in some of these more
rural areas that ARC invests in, wireless deployments are part
of the solution. Well, if you have an incumbent provider that
is saying we serve, you know, 20 percent of that particular 10-
mile radius that the wireless deployment is going to serve, and
the incumbent has the ability to halt that project due to that
overlap in service areas, that is problematic. I don't know how
we get to where we need to be with funders like ARC if they
can't invest in those types of projects.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much, Mr. Carson. I
appreciate it.
With that, my time has expired so I will yield to Dr. Joyce
for one more round of questions.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Chairwoman Finkenauer. I appreciate
that.
I am going to just kind of give a summary, and then I am
going to ask for each of your take away messages for Chairwoman
Finkenauer and me to return to Washington with. The important--
I always look for that. What is the message that if you have us
to allow to take back to our Subcommittee and to our Committee
at large, we came here to hear that.
Just 10 months ago, I transitioned from someone who cared
for several hundred people in, you know, south central
Pennsylvania, and I did that as a doctor proudly for over 25
years. But now I am caring for 700, 800,000 people at a
different level. And each and every one of you brought us an
incredible message.
Mr. Widerman, I am so supportive of the dairy industry and
what you do, and I am cognizant of the price per hundred and
how hard it is for the dairy industry to survive and thrive,
and this ability to understand where rural broadband can
enhance your productivity, make your lives better, those people
who provide us with affordable, nutritious food, that is what I
am going to ask--I am going to come back and ask you to give me
a take home message regarding that, or take back to Washington.
Mr. Angelini, I think as an educator, you brought
significance to this meeting. You talked to us about the
ability to educate, but allow parents to be connected and work
with their students at home. We salute you for doing that, for
bringing those issues to us and talking to us, interrupting
your academic day. I am sure the students are enjoying that
perhaps more than you are. But bringing that and talking to us,
because as you realize, this is an issue that affects all of
us. This is a bipartisan issue. You have two people here who
work well together. You are not going to see this on the 7
o'clock news tonight, because there is no hijinks. There is no
drama here today. There are people that are committed to making
our lives, your lives better.
Mike Ross, the ability for industry to improve and survive,
I need a take home message. I need a take back to Washington
message in that regard, because the ability to provide more
jobs and more industry is so important throughout south central
Pennsylvania, and that is your skillset. That is what is in
your toolbelt, and we need to hear that message as well.
Mr. Carson, from my hometown from Blair County, but
covering a substantial part of this region. The economic
development, the future of south central Pennsylvania, the
future of Pennsylvania 13 rests a lot on your shoulders as
well. And so, I have teed this up. I want each one of you--this
is the final message that you have an opportunity to take
back--to give us to take back to Washington.
So, Mr. Widerman, I will start with you.
Mr. WIDERMAN. I would just like to say that, you know, as
far as agriculture goes or rural broadband, with profit margins
not being where we think they should be or being so tight,
rural broadband is extremely important to us because time is
money. You know, from one day to the next could mean an
incredible profit or loss, in our opinion. So, you know, rural
broadband is extremely important, and goes all the way down the
line to education, you know. Our next generation needs to be
educated on rural broadband and in the technological age.
So, it is extremely important that it be accessible to
everybody, you know, as we continue down the road.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, and thank you for being here.
Mr. Angelini?
Mr. ANGELINI. Dr. Joyce, you mentioned at the beginning
that I am part of the Milken Educator Network. I am part of the
Pennsylvania State Education Association and I sit on one of
their statewide committees. Both of those help me to hear a lot
about what is happening in other parts of the state. More than
that, I grew up in a fairly wealthy suburb of Pittsburgh, in
the Hampton area near North Allegheny. I teach at Gettysburg
College, which has a large number of very wealthy students who
have a huge number of resources at their disposal. Part of that
is systematic. Part of that is generational. We want to ensure
that all of our students at New Oxford and across southern
Pennsylvania have those same opportunities that I had as a
student that they have at Gettysburg College, and that I get to
see and hear across the state. And that begins with supporting
the districts themselves, but more than that, with the families
who live in them.
And so, whatever the Committee can do to support that
effort, helps to level that playing field and give our students
a chance to build it up for all of us.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Mr. Angelini.
Mr. ANGELINI. Thank you.
Mr. JOYCE. Mr. Ross?
Mr. ROSS. First, what I would like to do is I would like to
thank you and the Chairwoman for the way this has been
conducted. And I mean, it is a breath of fresh air to see a
bipartisan Committee being handled so civilly and in the
interest of all of us, so thank you for that.
And I would like to--and the fact that you recognize that
this is a problem, and that it needs to be addressed and it
impacts every industry sector. It impacts education and
workforce development. And as we look--and our economy has
grown, but our only way that we can support the growth that is
taking place, we need the infrastructure to be able to do that,
and we don't have it right now. And so, anything that you can
do as part of a broader infrastructure package to include
broadband in it would be welcome across America.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for being here.
Mr. Carson?
Mr. CARSON. Thank you, Dr. Joyce.
A big part of my world is finding funding sources, helping
folks on the ground in the region that don't have a lot of
capacity, in many instances, to secure those funding resources
and ultimately implement successful projects. That is at the
core of what we do at Southern Alleghenies. And every day, I
see quite a few funding opportunities as it relates to
broadband deployment and broadband infrastructure. There are a
plethora of opportunities out there on both the state and
federal level.
We have heard from the other witnesses today on the need. I
think we can all agree that the need is certainly there. So, I
find myself and the Commission finds itself somewhere in the
middle. We are hearing about the need. We are helping to
further investigate and define that need through our
feasibility study that we are moving forward with in the next
few months.
But then we find ourselves not being able to--we can access
a lot of the funding that I have mentioned, as we did with the
ARC and EDA project in Somerset. Honestly, we haven't pursued
any additional projects when there are funds to be had for
these types of projects because of the fact that we don't think
we can use it. We think that ownership is still going to be a
huge concern whenever you are trying to partner with the
private sector to subsidize some of these rural networks. If
that issue alone can't be resolved in some way, I don't know
how we put these dollars on the ground. That is one reason that
we are looking at the cooperative model in the region, and I am
hoping that gives us a new angle, a new strategy to help to
deploy some of these important projects.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you. That is concise. I appreciate that,
Mr. Carson.
I yield.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. Joyce, and I again
want to thank every single one of you for being here today and
taking time out of your busy schedules. I know time is money,
especially on the farm. It means a lot that you all took time
to be here.
Thank you to the Committee staff as well. I know you
traveled to get here today. You see Dr. Joyce and I work
together, and our incredible staff also work really hard to
find common ground and get things done. We are very much
appreciative of your work. I also want to thank the law
enforcement with us today. Thank you for being here and always
making sure we are kept safe. Finally, thanks to all the folks
in the audience who came here today as well.
Field hearings are incredibly important, like I said
earlier. Bringing Congress to our communities means a lot.
Thank you for welcoming me to Gettysburg today. I hope to have
Dr. Joyce out to Iowa sometime, and now I have to show off our
district.
It is just exciting to be able to find this common ground.
As we work to make sure that we have policies that work for the
entire country, it is so important that we understand each
other's districts. This topic in particular touches
agriculture, our kids, school districts, economic development,
and our hospitals.
We know that access to broadband can mean the difference
between business growing or closing their doors, and as Mr.
Ross said, rural parts of our country being revitalized or left
behind. Closing the digital divide is a top priority for me. It
is why we are here. I will keep fighting to make sure that
Iowans voices are heard on these important issues, and it is
very obvious that Dr. Joyce will do the same for each of you.
With that, I would like to ask unanimous consent that
members have 5 legislative days to submit statements and
supporting materials for the record. Without objection, so
ordered.
If there is no further business to come before the
Committee, we are adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 2:20 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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