As the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began to unfold, many federal, local, and state governments, in addition to large and small businesses, implemented remote working or distance learning options to help abate the spread of the virus. As these decisions were made, some of the population had the option and the capability to shift activities online, while others did not. The digital divide has been used to characterize a gap between those Americans who have access to telecommunications and information technologies and those who do not. One subset of the digital divide debate concerns access to high-speed internet, also known as broadband. Broadband is provided by a variety of technologies (e.g., cable, telephone wire, fiber, satellite, and mobile and fixed wireless) that give users the ability to send and receive data at volumes and speeds that support a wide range of applications, including voice communications, entertainment, telemedicine, distance education, telework, ecommerce, civic engagement, public safety, and energy conservation.

Broadband technologies are currently being deployed, primarily by the private sector, throughout the United States. While the number of new broadband subscribers continues to grow, in general, rural areas—and tribal areas in particular—tend to lag behind urban and suburban areas in broadband deployment and the speed of service offered. Some policymakers, believing that disparities in broadband access across American society could have adverse economic and social consequences on those left behind, assert that the federal government should play a more active role to address the “digital divide” in broadband access, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which further revealed discrepancies in broadband availability and accessibility.

Federal support for broadband infrastructure occurs mainly through the Universal Service Fund (USF) programs under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the broadband and telecommunications programs at the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and newly established broadband programs within the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260) at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The USF, which was originally designed to ensure rural, high-cost areas have access to voice service, is undergoing a major transition, which is targeted to the deployment, adoption, and utilization of both fixed and mobile broadband. As currently designed, the USF consists of four programs: the High Cost/Connect America Fund Program; the Schools and Libraries Program; the Rural Health Care Program; and the Low Income (Lifeline) Program. While the overall purpose of each program is to help ensure the universal availability of telecommunications and broadband services, each program addresses specific aspects of that goal to fulfill the universal service mandate and help to close the digital divide. The USDA, through its Rural Utilities Service, administers five programs that provide loans and grants to increase access to broadband service in rural areas. These programs include the Community Connect Program, the ReConnect Program, the Rural Broadband Access Program, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Program, and the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program. Three new broadband programs are to be administered by the NTIA—a pilot program to connect minority communities, a grant program to support broadband connectivity on tribal lands throughout the country, and a grant program to support broadband infrastructure deployment to areas lacking broadband.

Funding for the USF does not come from appropriations, but from a mandatory fee on telecommunications carriers that provide interstate service and on certain other providers of telecommunications services. The fee is based on a percentage of the providers’ end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues. Approximately $8.3 billion from the USF was disbursed in 2019, with all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all territories receiving some benefit. Congress reauthorized and modified the RUS broadband programs in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-334). In recent years, Congress has provided additional funding for the RUS broadband programs. For example, most recently, Congress provided $635 million for the ReConnect program in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 P.L. 116-260).