To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, participated in a full committee hearing to review the FY2023 budget request for the U.S. Department of Commerce. During the hearing, Senator Capito questioned Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about coordination of broadband deployment between federal agencies, the department’s plan to hire staff to serve as points of contact specifically for West Virginia on broadband issues, and how inflation costs will impact the ability to connect homes and communities in the state.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ENCOURAGING THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT TO MORE NARROWLY FOCUS ON BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT: “You know my great interest on the broadband deployment. We've talked about this several times…I would like to see…I would have hoped that you would have a carve out for the broadband deployment area and not had this just be a general coordinating committee because if you're trying to coordinate transportation, water, and all this, it's never going to get down to the detail it needs to. This is a big issue.”
ON NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TO MAXIMIZE BROADBAND FUNDING: “Luckily and unluckily, we're eligible for a lot of funding because we still have a lot of unserved and underserved. But you can see if the conflicts come in, at the end of it, we don't want to say ‘wow, we're still not there yet.’ So anything we can do on that to work with you. We have a lot of good data, we would like to do that.”
ON INFLATION IMPACTING BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT: “And inflation of prices, what kind of impact is that going to have on the ability to deploy? What are you seeing there? Because I’m hearing this everywhere."
# # #