Rural Economic Development. This is a subject that has been a central focus in statewide discussions for most of my adult life. It would seem that one thing that most hardworking Nebraskans agree on is that the key to long-term tax relief and growing the “good life” is to continue to grow opportunities to not only keep Nebraska talent in Nebraska, but also attract talent to Nebraska. In short, grow our economy.

A fundamental aspect of this objective is to safeguard and expand the essential infrastructure Nebraskans rely on for their daily lives. At the most basic level, this includes access to education, healthcare, roads, reliable electricity and communication, including high-speed internet. Without these core services we can never expect to retain and attract our youth into our communities, specifically rural Nebraska.

In 2021, in an effort to address the need for a more robust buildout of internet access across the Country, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which included $42 billion to increase access to high-speed internet called the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The program provides grants to eligible entities in all states for broadband planning, mapping and deployment efforts. The Federal government recently made changes to the provisions for allocating these funds; however, this has raised questions and concerns for many, specifically in rural Nebraska.

A recent update highlights several critical issues concerning changes to the (BEAD) program. Originally, Nebraska was allocated $405 million for broadband buildout and based on project estimates, with around $250 million of that money, we could get fiber built to over 98% of the farms and ranches across the state that are not served today. However, one of the key changes recently made by the federal government involves a new “low-cost provider rule”, which could possibly prevent additional fiber buildout altogether.

This is because providers must offer 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds, which satellite and wireless providers can achieve in most scenarios, in addition to the new requirement for being the low cost bid. This allowance for satellite and wireless providers now makes them eligible for BEAD funding, despite their limitations in scalability and susceptibility to environmental factors such as trees, hills, wind, ice, and snow, things that do NOT affect fiber service. If we know one thing about Nebraska, we know we are guaranteed to encounter all of these factors!

In addition, the original BEAD plan identified 29,597 Nebraska households as eligible for BEAD programs due to being either unserved or under-served. The new plan, which now includes fixed and unlicensed wireless services, reduces this number to 14,298 households as of June 2025. However, these newly 'served' households often still lack access to reliable fiber-based service.

I will continue to ask the hard questions and pursue answers, until I am satisfied that Nebraskans will not be set back in time by losing access to resources to continue building the basic infrastructure necessary to grow reliable rural broadband, and in turn grow opportunities for EVERY community across the State.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Facebook: Tanya Storer for Legislature; Email: tstorer@leg.ne.gov; Phone: (402) 471-2628.

Respectfully, Senator Storer