WASHINGTON — With hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for broadband expansion in West Virginia, all efforts are being coordinated into a master plan.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said during a virtual press briefing Thursday, Gov. Jim Justice last fall announced a $1 billion broadband plan and “a lot of this is federal dollars.”
More money will also come from the infrastructure package, she said, so the numbers are huge.
“This will be coordinated,” she said. “This will not be one of those things where everybody is doing everything and nothing gets done. I know it feels that way sometimes.”
Capito said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo is on top of what is happening.
“At the Commerce level, they are going to have one person that is going to be totally dedicated to help our state do planning,” she said, to make sure everyone is acting in a coordinated basis and on the same page, including some local and regional broadband projects.
“All of this will be coordinated through the state Broadband Enhancement Council,” she said, adding that the council will have to add more staff to handle the project and the money.
Capito said broadband projects in unserved and underserved areas are the priority and a mapping process is now under way to pinpoint where those problem areas are.
That was the purpose of her Capito Connect project, which asked residents to send in what issues they have with broadband.
“We have close to a thousand stories talking about service … ” she said, and those include no service, poor service, sudden disconnects and other problems that impede needed broadband work like homework for the kids.
“This will help show where the problems are,” she said, and a map should be completed by May to include exactly where broadband expansion and enhancement are needed the most. “We have to get the mapping right.”
After that, a $5 million grant will be available the state can apply for to pull together the broadband plan because it will be more evident where broadband is most needed.
Capito said each state will get at least $100 million for broadband development from the infrastructure bill, but it is allocated using a formula based on how underserved areas are.
West Virginia should benefit from that formula, she said, because of having so many underserved rural areas.
Capito also addressed the ongoing supply chain problems and said a bill has passed the Senate and is in the House to help streamline the process by unwinding the regulatory process and getting quicker distribution of products.
However, that is not the main solution.
“We let our manufacturing go overseas…” she said. “The solution is to make things in this country.”
Capito said companies went overseas to “chase the dollar” with cheaper labor in places like India and China.
But making products at home is the long-term answer to the problem, she added.
In the political realm, Capito continues to say that she does not think former Pres. Donald Trump will be the 2024 GOP nominee for president, but did not elaborate, instead saying it is too early and that scenario will play itself out.
But she did say she does not support Trump’s recent statement that if he were president again he would pardon some who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“I do not support the president” with that, she said, describing Jan. 6 as a “terrifying day” that was violent and a day that was “very difficult for all of us as Americans to watch and live through.”
On another issue, Capito said in the briefing she supports Gov. Jim Justice’s request for a waiver on the federal mandate for health care workers to be vaccinated for COVID.
“I think this is an instance where the administration needs to have some flexibility,” she said, because rural hospitals are having difficulty maintaining enough staff as it is.
Although more health care workers are being vaccinated than once predicted, she said, the waiver would still help. “It is a reasonable request.”