Broadband Breakfast reports…

The fate of millions of dollars in rural broadband funding remains unresolved as Congress heads into its August recess.

The Senate Agriculture Committee failed Thursday to advance the Agricultural Act of 2026, the chamber’s version of a long-delayed farm bill. The stalled bill includes language that would codify and consolidate the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect broadband program, which has distributed $5.5 billion in rural broadband funding since 2018, but has never operated on a permanent statutory basis.

The Senate draft, released in June by the office of Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., and revised again in late July, would authorize up to $100 million a year for ReConnect through 2031, targeting underserved areas where 90 percent of households lack access to broadband service offering speeds of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload.