Community Connect Grant Program Act of 2026
Rural Internet: Faster Speeds and Grant Funding
The Community Connect Grant Program Act of 2026 is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for review. No further actions are scheduled at this time.
Legislative Progress
Broadband support is often bipartisan, but this bill must compete with other spending priorities and could be merged into a larger package.
Key Points
- This bill extends a federal grant program that helps bring high-speed internet to rural towns that currently have slow or no service. The program would be authorized to continue through the year 2031.
- It raises the standards for what counts as high-speed internet. To receive a grant, a project must now provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps for downloading and 20 Mbps for uploading.
- The plan focuses on the most needy areas. It defines a rural area as underserved if it currently lacks internet speeds of at least 25 Mbps for downloading and 3 Mbps for uploading.
- To save taxpayer money, the bill prevents the government from giving grants to areas that are already scheduled to get high-speed internet through other federal or state programs.
Impact Analysis
Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.
Milestones
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
News
No related news coverage found for this legislation yet.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Community Connect Grant Program Act of 2026
Data Sources
Sponsor
Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.