An Obama administration official slammed Republican roadblocks to economic recovery as Vice President Joe Biden, this week, announced recovery act-funded investments in 94 broadband projects. Aiming to provide high-speed Internet access to communities in 37 states, some $7 billion in recovery act funds have been allocated for investments in broadband development.
Currently, 36 percent of Americans lack access to high-speed Internet service, government officials estimate.
The funds will come in the form of grants and loans, some of which leverage additional private investments, to utility companies to lay fiber optic cable, build wireless transmission towers and purchase other technologies to construct 25,000 miles of broadband networks, the administration said.
These infrastructure improvements will link some 19 million people, 1.8 million small businesses, and thousands of other "anchor institutions," like schools, libraries, community centers, hospitals, and public safety facilities, to high-speed Internet service.
“Today's investment in broadband technology will create jobs across the country and expand opportunities for millions of Americans and American companies," Vice President Biden said in a press statement. "In addition to bringing 21st century infrastructure to underserved communities and rural areas, these investments will begin to harness the power of broadband to improve education, health care and public safety."
In a conference call with the media to announce the projects, the Vice President's top economic advisor, Jared Bernstein, also suggested Republicans who have delayed recovery act funds have blocked economic growth. Their ideological opposition to the President's economic policies likely slowed the return of job creation for their states and localities.
"It's certainly the case if you were late to act on recovery act funds that were available to your community, you delayed job creation and that's a very significant cost to the workforces in those communities," he said.
Despite these partisan roadblocks, Bernstein told reporters, the recovery act has sparked much progress, especially when compared to where the economy stood when President Obama took office. "At that time, the depth of the recession was just becoming clear," he said. "We now know that the economy was contracting at the nightmarish rate of almost seven percent in 2008." And in the first six months of 2009 alone some 4 million jobs were lost.
The pace of the economic disaster was slowed and even turned around after President Obama signed the recovery act, however. "Over the past year, GDP has grown at the rate of three percent, and we've added over 600,000 private sector jobs," he said. The recovery act also played a role in protecting or creating about 3 million jobs, according to Congressional Budget Office data and other non-government studies.
He explained the recovery act has moved into the "investment" phase with billions for developments in clean energy and technology, high-speed rail, and the new broadband Internet projects just announced.
"We need to grow faster and to create more jobs," he added, "but the huge swing here from negatives to positives is historically unprecedented."
Responding to Republican charges that broadband access is a "luxury" in a time of deficits and slow growth, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke stated that high-speed Internet is an important tool for business growth, education and job creation.
"When you talk to the small businesses I've come across throughout the country, for them, high-speed Internet service is a necessity," he said. Without broadband access, "they're losing orders. They're not able to market themselves. They're not able to transact with more customers or suppliers."
"For them, high-speed Internet is just as important as electrification was for the country in the 30's," Locke explained. Access to high-speed Internet will open up the world to small businesses, students seeking online education, and local institutions like schools, libraries, healthcare facilities, and public safety organizations.
Photo: These students in rural Oklahoma have access to foreign language courses through new high-speed Internet service as a result of President Obama's recovery act. (USDA)
