Last week Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced a package of legislation addressing needs facing rural communities – including broadband. Here are the bills she introduced:

• The Rural Investment to Strengthen our Economy Act (Rural RISE Act).
• The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act.
• The School Food Fresh Act.

It was the broadband act that was most interesting to me. Quoting from her site, here is a brief description:

The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act. This legislation will extend and improve access to broadband services in small towns across America. It creates a policy and action framework to ensure that the federal government employs an effective and comprehensive strategy to deploy broadband service and access in the rural areas of the United States. The bill will also establish a Rural Broadband Innovation fund to explore and develop cutting edge broadband delivery technologies to reach underserved rural areas. The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act has been endorsed by the Communications Workers of America. (Read the full bill…)

People (OK, blogggers) seems to have a range of reactions:

• GigaOM, another broadband blogger, posted his comments on the announcement and seems to think that this is great for Iowa voters, but mostly a bill without teeth. The comments his post generated are all over the board
• Nerds of the North Dot are less charitable (but more entertaining) – eventually determining that urban folks should not have to pay for rural access.
• Daily Wireless does a great job of outlining not only Senator Clinton’s take on rural broadband but also outlining views of other potential 2008 candidates.

In my opinion, the bill is a positive step forward. The basic goal seems to be to establish an Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives in the Department of Agriculture. The job of the Office will be to research broadband in rural areas (current access, attractive technologies), serve as the go-to people for federal, stat, and local governments for all things related to rural broadband, and administer the National Rural Broadband Innovation Fund. (It looks as if they are thinking about $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012.)

As I’ve said in earlier posts right now I think the greatest experts in this field are the vendors. And many of these vendors are heavily invested in the status quo of broadband access, technology, and regulation. I think we need an entity that rises above the existing status quo to create a plan that focuses on getting the US back into a leadership role on a international playing field not on the existing national status quo.

The countries that are doing amazing things with broadband (and are reaping the economic benefits) have taken the time, money, and energy to create a plan to move forward.