(St. Paul, MN) – Friday, the Minnesota Senate unanimously passed the final version of legislation to distribute emergency broadband funding. In the wake of the spring COVID-19 wave, $27 million will be quickly available to increase vital broadband infrastructure in unserved areas of the state for education, remote work, and telemedicine. All of these areas have been heavily impacted by the lack of internet access in Greater MN, and this bill increases rural economic development and quality of life for Minnesotans without depleting a general fund that is already stretched thin.

Senator Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake), chief author of the bill, commended the bill on the Senate floor, saying, “There is a ‘need for speed’, with high-speed internet. We have found ways to make distance work with online education, some remote jobs, and health care through telehealth. Minnesotans in mostly rural areas need this legislation badly. We’ve all heard stories of kids driving 20 or 30 miles just to access internet outside their schools or at a fast-food business, for their schoolwork. This bill is crucial to make sure our children and our workforce in unserved areas are not set back by circumstances out of their control.”

$15 million will be designated in 2020 to a K-12 “distance learning broadband access grant program” for students lacking Internet access last spring or this fall. $2 million will go towards reimbursing licensed healthcare providers or public health agencies who invest in and install telemedicine equipment for COVID-19-related care.

The Border to Border Broadband Fund, which targets the development of permanent broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, is a significant recipient of the bill and will provide substantial help for businesses, telecommuting, and distance learning. The program will receive $10 million of the $27 million appropriation. All projects have to be up and running by the end of 2020 to comply with criteria set forth to use the federal Covid-19 funding source, meaning there needs to be a lightning-fast round of grant applications and rapid completion of the projects in unserved communities.  The grants will be limited to $500,000, but up to 75% of the project will be in the unserved areas.  This was designed to foster quick turn-around in areas most negatively affected during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This bill has had several iterations, but through determination by the chief authors and others, agreement on the federal dollars’ distribution was reached between the House and Senate near the last day of special session. Although this bill had been worked out by all four legislative caucus leads and committee chairs, Governor Walz and DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman have waffled on their support of the rural broadband bill, holding the bill up for final passage in the House of Representatives.  The bill passed with a bipartisan vote of 67-0 in the Senate.

“It would be extremely unfortunate if the DFL leadership in the House and the Governor Walz administration continue to block this rural broadband bill from helping rural communities, and even pockets of the metro areas,” Westrom added. “Its final passage lies in their hands.”