U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said rural broadband funding is expected to emerge as a big winner in the federal stimulus package. “There’s going to be plenty in there for rural broadband,” Harkin said. “We just have to make sure we get it out.”

In a conference call with The Daily Yonder and other media, Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, estimated that $9 billion could go to broadband extension, much of it in rural areas. That's how much is included is included in the Senate version of the stimulus bill. The House bill, which now moves to the U.S. Senate, includes $6 billion in funding to stimulate broadband deployment across the U.S.

Harkin also said on the conference call that E85 ethanol should get a boost as well from this new legislation. There are expected to be tax incentives in the stimulus package for filling stations to put in more blender pumps. This would widen the market for the biofuel. The senator said he plans to offer amendments for more funding of biofuels and biomass in programs already established under the Farm Bill. “We’ll try to do more in that area,” Harkin said.

— Douglas Burns

Big companies have had their chance at providing broadband to underserved areas; now, argues Wally Bowen, it's time for local owners and planners to step in.

The Obama administration intends to spend $6 billion wiring rural and urban center for high speed internet access. Saul Hansell asks in today's New York Times, "Does Broadband Need a Stimulus?"

Hansell writes that the problem with the plan is providing subsidies for increasing the speed of existing broadband connections. Hansell writes that "noise" about "how America has fallen behind other nations in its broadband infrastructure" is "hooey." There is new technology that will easily jump the connection speed for 19 out of 20 American homes.

"Most of the $6 billion is meant to subsidize broadband service in “underserved areas,” mainly the small fraction of households in rural and some urban areas that can’t readily connect to any broadband service," Hansell writes approvingly. "Interestingly, much of the money will go to fund wireless broadband service. That may be an efficient way to reach some rural areas."

A close friend of President-elect Barack Obama is expected to be named to lead the Federal Communications Commission, emphasizing the new president's interest in using internet broadband as a tool for economic development. Obama and Julius Genachowski were classmates at Harvard Law School and have remained close since.

"It's been a long time since we've had an FCC chairman who is close to the president," Andy Lipman, who leads the telecom-media practice at the Bingham McCutchen law firm in Washington, said to Austin American-Statesman reporter David Ho. "It's important because the president and the White House want to be hands-on in terms of FCC policy, especially using broadband as a key part of the economic stimulus."

Information Week reports that Genachowski has clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices and has worked for entertainment mogul Barry Diller. The first controversy to meet the new FCC chair, however, will be the February 17 conversion from analog transmission of television signals to digital. Obama has asked that this switch be postponed because too many elderly and rural residents don't have the devices that allow analog sets to receive a digital signal.