Pelican State News

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) announced Louisiana will receive $1,355,554,552.94 in broadband funding from his Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“We made investing in broadband a priority when negotiating the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and now Louisiana is seeing the benefit,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This is a historic $1.3 billion investment that will enable millions of Louisiana students, small businesses, and families to reach their full potential with access to high-speed internet.” 

The funding comes from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The BEAD Program provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed Internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs.

While negotiating the bill, Cassidy pushed for a fair broadband formula that would benefit Louisiana’s needs and ensure the funding was directed to areas that lacked access to high-speed internet. The formula is based on the number of unserved and underserved broadband recipients in each state as determined by updated Broadband internet-coverage maps. 

Original source can be found here