Warren promises $85 billion program for rural broadband

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has promised $85 million in federal funding to make sure that rural Americans get broadband. And she wants to override states that try to prevent local municipalities from building their own broadband networks. Sen. Warren from Massachusetts unveiled her plan Wednesday morning ahead of a road trip across Iowa. The broadband initiative is part of a bigger proposal called “My Plan to Invest in Rural America,” which includes ideas for increasing federal investment in rural health care, payments to farmers to go green, and a slew of other programs directed at farming. At the heart of the plan is the $85 billion rural broadband initiative that will distribute federal grants to build new networks. Warren says the plan will bring “fiber infrastructure necessary to bring high-speed broadband to unserved areas, underserved areas, or areas with minimal competition.” The government already spends billions of dollars in subsidies every year to help bring broadband to rural communities. With broadband becoming as essential as running water and electricity to improving people’s daily lives and providing a standard of living equal to that of urban and suburban parts of the country, politicians from the left and the right see the issue of bringing these services to communities with limited or no access as one that can help them win the hearts and minds of rural America. The problem Warren said in her blog that roughly 26.4% of people living in rural areas and 32.1% of people living on tribal…