NTIA Must Continue to Improve its Program Management and Pre-Award Process for its Broadband Grants Program

摘要

On February 17, 2009, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law. The Recovery Act gives the Department of Commerces National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) $7.2 billion, which must be awarded before September 30, 2010, to expand broadband services in the United States. Of the $7.2 billion to be awarded, $4.7 billion was provided to NTIA to establish the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which is a competitive grant program intended to provide funds for deploying broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas of the United States, enhance broadband capacity at public computer centers, improve access to broadband services for public safety agencies, and promote sustainable broadband adoption projects. The remaining $2.5 billion was provided to the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) to issue loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations to facilitate broadband deployment in rural areas. Figure 1 provides the breakdown of the allocated BTOP Recovery Act funds.