I think the second paragraph, which you have included above is most telling and unfortunately an area where both branches agree. As your article points out, the bills have been well received but it seems that the changes have lessened the impact. In the end I think we’ll end up agreeing that broadband is important – but lack of funding speaks louder than bills themselves.

Again your article points out that some legislators are disappointed with the lessened bill – more in terms of how detailed the mapping will be than funding. It seems as if maybe they could go with the detailed surveys of US broadband and forget about mapping internationally – leave that to someone such as the OECD.

Thanks! Ann

WASHINGTON, October 7 – Congress last week passed legislation, the “Broadband Data Improvement Act,” that seeks better information about high-speed internet connections through enhanced data collection by five separate government agencies.

But as passed by the Senate and the House, S. 1492 deleted all authorization of funds – an amount that had totaled $40 million for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012 in the Senate Commerce Committee version of the legislation.

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