The head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration visited the state Capitol in Charleston on Friday to discuss the $1.2 billion broadband expansion in West Virginia.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., hosted Alan Davidson, the assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, at the Capitol, where he met with Gov. Jim Justice and other state officials for a day of roundtable discussions.
West Virginia will receive a $1.2 billion share of the $42 billion included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. Capito and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted for the bill, while Reps. Alex Mooney and Carol Miller, both R-W.Va., did not.
“Because of the way we in Congress wrote it and the way it’s going to be implemented, it’s going to go to the unserved and underserved,” Capito said Friday. “This money’s not going to go to overbuild in certain places or to up peoples’ speeds who already have adequate speeds.”
During a news conference Friday, Justice praised the work that went into making sure West Virginia received a healthy portion of the funds. The state received the 11th-most funding in the nation and was one of 19 states to receive more than $1 billion.
“What would West Virginia normally have gotten out of a pie of less than $50 billion in this nation? Would we really have expected that West Virginia’s part of the pie would be $1.2 billion? There’s no way, really,” Justice said.
West Virginia received a significant sum, in part, because its citizens completed connectivity speed tests that helped map the unserved areas, Davidson said.
“West Virginia was one of the top 10 states whose numbers improved from the first version of the map to the second one. There was a lot of hard work that went into that,” he said.
The work isn’t over, he said. The state must complete a plan by Aug. 12 outlining how and where the funding will be spent. Once that plan is received and approved, the federal government will release the first 20% of the funds, with the remainder to be rolled out in increments over the next five years.
“We’ve given the state some big homework assignments, because we don’t write those big checks without a little bit of homework,” Davidson said. “And the state is on it.”
Davidson acknowledged the work already being done, including West Virginia’s plan to spend $1 billion on its own to improve connectivity, as well as the work of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council in mapping underserved areas.
Davidson described the funding as an historic moment, comparing broadband to large infrastructure projects, like the national highway system, completed by previous generations.
“This is our generation’s big infrastructure moment. This is our chance to make sure everybody in the country is connected and everybody in West Virginia is connected with the tools they need to succeed in a modern economy — and that’s an internet connection,” Davidson said.
Although he did not participate in the visit Friday, Manchin said in a released statement that he was pleased Davidson could visit West Virginia.
“With this historic federal investment, we will not only improve the quality of life for thousands of families, but also provide our communities with the tools and infrastructure needed to be competitive in the 21st century,” Manchin said.