Too many Oregonians are without reliable broadband internet service, said U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River) said during an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing.
Last year, Walden brought Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai out to Eastern Oregon to discuss efforts to improve connectivity in rural communities, including making sure patients in remote areas have access to the best doctors through technology like Telehealth.
“As Chairman Pai saw firsthand when he joined me in Eastern Oregon last year, far too many Oregonians still lack access to reliable broadband internet service. They are not alone. Millions of our citizens who live in rural America face the same internet dead zones,” said Walden.
He went on to emphasize the need to carefully determine how to make broadband funding the most effective. Walden pointed out that accurate broadband mapping is a critical component to this.
“We must take the time to study where broadband funding will be most effective,” said Walden. “Accurate maps are key to accomplishing that. This committee recently passed two bipartisan mapping bills aimed at improving data collection and mapping efforts at the FCC.”
Last March, Walden helped secure government funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s ReConnect Program, which earlier this week awarded a $6 million grant to John Day to help expand rural broadband in Grant and Wheeler counties.
John Day, for example, is so limited in internet service that during one of Walden’s visits last year, the whole town had been experiencing internet outages intermittently for a couple weeks and they had to pay with cash at the gas station because they couldn’t process cards, making it hard to do business.
