Senate Passes Economic Stimulus Bill
The Senate has voted to pass its $838 billion version of the economic stimulus bill, which would provide $7 billion in funding for broadband deployment. The Senate bill, which saw significant changes and compromises before its eventual passage, was originally ticketed to provide $9 billion in funding under NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program before being amended to its final $7 billion price tag. The Senate bill does call for the imposition of open access and network neutrality provisions on networks built using federal grant funds.The House and Senate must now go into Conference Committee and reconcile differences between the two versions of the economic stimulus package.