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  "description": "Other broadband resources are doing the job, White House said",
  "path": "/trump-plan-wants-to-cut-usda-broadband-funding/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-05-05T20:56:58.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_a new budget plan Friday_",
    "_to expand rural broadband_",
    "_for broadband expansion_",
    "_eliminate programs_",
    "_a Friday response_"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, May 5, 2025 – The Trump administration unveiled _a new budget plan Friday_ that called for halting new broadband funding through the United States Department of Agriculture.\n\nCongress established the USDA’s ReConnect Program _to expand rural broadband_ access in 2018. Since the program’s creation, Congress has issued $2.3 billion in funding for ReConnect programs and loans for rural broadband deployment.\n\nThe proposed budget was announced by the Office of Management and Budget under the acting Director, **Russ Vought**.\n\n“No new USDA funding is needed _for broadband expansion_, as existing balances and other Federal resources are meeting planned growth,” the White House said. “The Budget would also _eliminate programs_ that are duplicative, too small to have macro-economic impact, costly to deliver, in limited demand, available through the private sector, or conceived as temporary.”\n\nThe Trump administration cited telecommunications loans as examples of those that fit their qualifications for programs to eliminate.\n\n“Cutting duplicative rural broadband efforts is the right move, especially as new technologies like fixed wireless and low-earth orbit satellites are closing the coverage gap,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President **Robert Atkinson** said in _a Friday response_ to the new budget. “Future efforts should focus on affordability and adoption, not redundant infrastructure.”\n\nOther telecommunications industry groups have yet to comment on the planned budget.",
  "title": "Trump Plan Wants to Cut USDA Broadband Funding",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:29:52.391Z"
}