Vice President Kamala Harris, appointed to oversee the rural broadband expansion by the administration, did not manage to provide high-speed internet to a single individual despite having $42.5 billion from the infrastructure bill. President Joe Biden designated her for this task during his 2021 State of the Union address, expressing confidence that it would be accomplished. However, as of 2024, there has been minimal advancement in connecting Americans to high-speed internet under the Biden-Harris administration. Brendan Carr, a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), highlighted in June that despite the substantial funding available from the infrastructure bill, not a single American had been connected.
Carr noted on Wednesday, “President Biden put VP Harris in charge of this effort back in 2021 and days later not 1 person has been connected.”
He added, “Hundreds of broadband infrastructure builders are now sounding the alarm, writing that the $42 billion plan to expand Internet has been wired to fail.”
NEW: Hundreds of broadband infrastructure builders are now sounding the alarm, writing that the $42 billion plan to expand Internet has been wired to fail.
President Biden put VP Harris in charge of this effort back in 2021 and 9️⃣8️⃣2️⃣ days later not 1 person has been connected. https://t.co/LFmYg12ZmX pic.twitter.com/BNjLaNG8mr
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 24, 2024
Talk about the passage of time
It has now been 9️⃣7️⃣7️⃣ days since the Biden-Harris Administration passed its $42 billion plan for expanding Internet
0️⃣ Americans have been connected
0️⃣ Shovels worth of dirt turned
Is that “the passage of time” that VP Harris had in mind ? pic.twitter.com/iMRtHlyy8Q
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 19, 2024
Breitbart News reported:
“Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption. The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed. Congress passed the infrastructure bill in 2021, which would mean that the BEAD program has had little success in its two years since Biden passed the bill.”
