Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for action to expand broadband internet access in rural Oregon.
During a hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Walden stressed the importance of prioritizing unserved areas in Oregon and throughout the country when expanding broadband internet infrastructure.
Walden’s committee today examined the definition of broadband service in America and improving the “mapping” of broadband coverage across the country. During the hearing, Walden emphasized the importance of ensuring the definition of broadband service meets the needs of consumers and provides a productive level of internet service. Walden also stressed the need to increase the accuracy of mapping broadband coverage to identify unserved areas of the country that do not have internet access. A full transcript of Walden’s remarks is included below:
“If you ask someone in rural America — like my giant district in eastern Oregon — whether they have broadband access that meets the speeds ‘as defined by the Federal Communications Commission,’ they likely don’t know. If you ask them whether they get internet access to match their needs, they can probably give you a quick yes or no answer. That should be our primary objective as policy makers looking to allocate federal resources — accounting for consumer demand, putting the consumer first, and getting the most people the best access to a productive level of internet service.”
