From October 27, 2022 post.
LOUISVILLE, KY – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced today the Department of Agriculture (USDA) will grant $9,378,184 to the Mountain Rural Telephone Cooperative Corporation and $12,188,991 to the Thacker-Grigsby Telephone Company to support broadband internet development in rural Kentucky.
The funding announced today will allow the Mountain Rural Telephone Cooperative Corporation to provide affordable high-speed internet to rural communities in Powell County and will enable the Thacker-Grigsby Telephone Company to expand broadband coverage in Breathitt and Leslie counties.
The funding for today’s grant comes from the ReConnect Program, which provides competitive federal grants to support broadband development in underserviced communities around the country. Senator McConnell secured $1.926 billion for this initiative over the next five years through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which the Senator supported and the President signed into law last year, and an additional $486.6 million for the program in the Fiscal Year 2022 government funding bill. This is part of the $65.9 billion Senator McConnell secured in the IIJA to spur broadband development.
“For too long, communities in rural Kentucky have gone without affordable and reliable broadband internet coverage, raising household costs and inhibiting economic development. I supported last year’s bipartisan infrastructure deal to change that, and am proud that federal funding is flowing to rural Kentucky to bring broadband to all the Commonwealth’s citizens. Kentuckians, no matter where they live, need speedy, inexpensive internet to compete in the 21st-century economy,” said Senator McConnell.
