This month, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) helped secure a $4,881,150 grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Connect Program to expand rural broadband in West Lewis County.
With the funding, Lewis County PUD will deploy 47.3 miles of new fiber infrastructure in Doty, Dryad, and Pe Ell, covering 622 new locations currently lacking high-speed broadband. Last year, Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez wrote to the USDA in support of the project.
Approximately 93 percent of those living in the proposed service area do not have adequate broadband access, and many do not have internet access at all.
Previously, Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez helped secure $24.2 million to make high-speed internet available for 2,863 people in Lewis County, including in Randle, Packwood, and Glenoma. In April, the Congresswoman held a roundtable on rural broadband access at Lewis County PUD, and she hosted USDA Under Secretary Xochitl Torres Small at a similar roundtable discussion last year.
“Struggling to access the internet is a part of daily life for rural communities like mine – my family gets our internet from a radio tower. Getting broadband lines in the ground isn’t about having the bandwidth to stream cat videos – it’s about accessing employment, healthcare, schoolwork, and the resources to grow a small business,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. “Expanding fiber infrastructure in rural communities isn’t always commercially feasible, so these much-needed funds will jumpstart efforts to connect folks in Pe Ell, Doty, and Dryad. Our rural and ag communities have been passed over for far too long, so I’ll keep fighting for federal dollars to power transformative investments like this one.”
The Congresswoman introduced the bipartisan Rural Internet Improvement Act to expand rural broadband so everyone can access the telehealth, telework, small business, and educational opportunities that come with it.
The USDA’s Community Connect Program helps rural communities extend access where broadband service is least likely to be commercially available, but where it can make the greatest positive impact and foster economic growth.
An interactive map of community investments supported by the Congresswoman can be found at gluesenkampperez.house.gov/invest.