President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget, released Monday (March 28), includes more than a half-billion additional dollars in direct broadband aid, as well as billions in discretionary spending billed as, in part, a complement to the $65 billion already allocated for closing the digital divide in the White House-backed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The additional, direct funding is in the form of a proposed $600 million in additional spending on the ReConnect program, supplementing an original $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand high-speed internet access — or, in this case, build it in the first place — in rural and particularly in tribal communities as part of the president's Build Back Better agenda.

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To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, applicants must serve an area without broadband service at speeds of 100 megabits per second downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, and commit to building facilities capable of providing broadband service at speeds of 100 Mbps (downstream and upstream) to every location in its proposed service area.

There is also $25 million in direct funding for rural telecom cooperatives to refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade broadband facilities. RUS is one of the USDA’s broadband grant/loan programs.

But in addition to that, the budget provides for $28.5 billion for USDA, which the budget says is meant to “complement” broadband deployment funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, as well as conservation and forest management.

Likewise, the Commerce Department, which is handing out the bulk of the $65 billion broadband infrastructure spending, will get $11.7 billion in discretionary funding to “complement major investments in broadband Internet access and climate resilience.”

"I applaud President Biden’s call for additional investments to support domestic manufacturing, secure our supply chains, and bridge the digital divide," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over broadband issues.  ■

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation did not find a lot to like in President Donald Trump's new budget.

Following the final budget's release May 23, ITIF vice president for global innovation policy Stephen Ezell said that it would "slash" investments needed for research and workforce education and skills. He said Congress should declare the budget DOA.

ITIF said the country already has underinvested in science, R&D and commercializing tech innovation.

"Further reducing federal investment in these kinds of foundational goods will set back the country even further," Ezell added. 

Noting the proposed 10% cut in non-defense R&D -- while the budget boosts defense spending -- Ezell said there is a big difference between wasteful spending and critical investments. 

ITIF points to, among other things, zeroing out the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, an 11% cut for National Science Foundation grants, and a 70% cut in Manufacturing USA, as well as the elimination of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

"Lawmakers should exercise their constitutional power to approve a budget that better meets the nation’s economic need," he concludes.

While the President proposes and Congress disposes the budget, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney conceded that the President's budget would not pass as proposed, but signaled the exercise is important in telegraphing the President's priorities.

He said the budget was drawn up with hard-working taxpayers in mind and what programs the government should ask those taxpayers to fund. He said compassion was not defined by the number of programs or dollars but what bang taxpayers were getting for their bucks, plus the need to address a $20 trillion deficit and the need to boost investment in defense and security.

As predicted, Donald Trump's new "America First" budget, which is being released at 7 a.m. Thursday (March 16), will zero out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the non-profit company that provides most of a half billion dollars in federal money for noncommercial media.

The confirmation came from Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, who outlined the president's budget in a conference call with reporters, calling it a "hard-power" budget that required cutting "soft-power" programs.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer had circulated a Washington Post story this week about the budget that mentioned the expectation CPB's funding would be cut; the administration would be unlikely to pass around a story that conflicted with its plans.

Asked whether CPB's $421 million in funding would be eliminated, Mulvaney shot back, "Yes," then finessed his answer a bit, but essentially only on a technicality.

"No, I'm, sorry, I was too quick with that," Mulvaney said. "We propose ending funding, but technically what you will see is its elimination, but you'll see an amount of money in the budget necessary for us to unwind our involvement in CPB, but it will see a zero next to it; the policy is, we're ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

The budget is only a blueprint, and Congress must approve its line items. Congress created the CPB in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which declared it to be in the public interest.

While Republicans, and even some Democrats, have in the past balked at the funding and pushed for cuts, more recently CPB has had support from both sides for full funding.

CPB is forward-funded as a means of keeping politics out of it, and in June of last year, the company was fully funded through 2019. But it now looks like it will be backward-defunded. Mulvaney said 2017 funding would be for "winding down" the government's involvement and that the CPB would be zeroed out in 2018.

Mulvaney did not talk specifically about CPB beyond saying it was being defunded, but said that to increase the budgets for Defense and Homeland Security, and to provide billions for "The Wall" -- including $1.5 billion in 2017 and more than $2 billion in 2018 -- the administration would make dollar-for-dollar cuts to programs he said were indefensible.

CPB is the largest single source of funding for public radio, television and related online and mobile services, according to its website. It provides about 15% of the budgets for noncommercial media organizations, with the rest coming from corporate underwriters and contributions from viewers.

More than 70% of CPB’s federal funding goes directly to local public media stations, the CPB's website notes, at an average annual cost per American of $1.35.

Among other takeaways from the call with Mulvaney was a 28% reduction in the State Department's budget, much of that from foreign aid programs.

Mulvaney also said the budget would include cuts in infrastructure spending, which would appear not to square with Trump’s plan to spend on infrastructure upgrades, but Mulvaney added that money was being moved out of less efficient programs and parked to be used in more efficient ones.