Thank you all for joining us here today.

Before we get started, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the needlessly aggressive events taking place in Eastern Europe. Overnight, Russia initiated an unwarranted invasion of Ukraine. The United States of America, and our allies, stand together with the people of Ukraine during this terrible time. President Biden has been very clear that Russia will pay a steep price for its military aggression, and the entire administration stands ready to implement swift and severe economic measures against Russia. We will continue to support Ukraine and its democratically-elected government and I would expect we will have much more to say in the coming days. 

Turning to today’s event, I want to thank our host, Dr. Holston, for allowing us to hold this important conversation on Georgia Piedmont Technical College’s beautiful campus. I would also like acknowledge Shawanzia for all you do to modernize Georgia’s IT infrastructure, ensuring that the Peach State has the tools it needs to stay competitive in our 21^stcentury world, as well as Congressman Hank Johnson for all he has done for his district, his state, and his country.

Congressman Johnson, you worked hard to secure the resources we are discussing, and every day, as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual property and the internet, you are fighting for all our information technology rights.I would also like to thank Paul Belk from NGN for the work they do to ensure that businesses, governments, hospitals and schools have internet they can rely on. At the Department of Commerce, we are excited to continue working with NGN and other companies to ensure that rural and underserved communities can access the broadband they need and deserve to participate in our modern economy.

I would also like to acknowledge our other participants, Rev. Gibson from St. Philip A.M.E. Church, who provided laptops and connectivity to parishioners and local students in their community during the pandemic. We also have Vernelle Woods, CEO of Cultural Wireless, and Bryan Ferguson, CEO of Habersham Electric. 

Today, it is very easy for us to take the internet for granted. Just today, my team and I sent final details over email, were able to receive precise GPS coordinates to arrive here on our smart phones and will likely share photos on social media following the event all thanks to the internet and our ability to readily access it.

But beyond these technological conveniences, broadband has such a huge impact on our lives. Aside from checking emails and scrolling through our respective timelines, we have seen how important the internet has been in the face of this pandemic. 

I’m sure many parents here today know all too well how critical internet access has been over the last few years—from making sure our children could receive a proper education through remote learning, to trying to schedule telehealth appointments given various restrictions that states and local governments had to put in place.

90% of Americans say that the internet has been essential or important to them during the pandemic. Yet, we know that access to broadband and the internet is not created equal, with more than 30 million Americans lacking access to reliable broadband, and the problem is worse in minority and rural communities.

As the Joint Center for Political and Economic studies has reported, 38 percent of Black households in the rural South lack access to broadband at acceptable speeds. Black families in general are 9 percent less likely to have high-speed internet than their white peers.

Right here in Georgia, 15% of households do not have an internet subscription, and over 640,000 Georgians lack access to broadband.

This is an injustice, and it must end.

Fortunately, I am here to tell you that help is on the way.

Because of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are finally able to tackle this issue in a robust and meaningful way by providing $65 billion to expand broadband in communities across the U.S.— $48 billion of which is being allocated to the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Every single state, including Georgia, will receive at least $100 million for broadband expansion and affordability.

This landmark legislation will also provide $2.75 billion to fund the Digital Equity Act, which provides funding to promote digital inclusion and equity for communities to take advantage of broadband connections, including technical.

These long overdue investments will build on the work we are already doing at the Department of Commerce through our various broadband programs, such as the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, a $268 million grant program to HBCUs and MSIs for the purchase of broadband internet access service and to hire and train information technology personnel.

Late last year, we announced that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has received more than 200 applications for the CMC Program, requesting more than $833 million in funding.

The outpouring of interest in this program demonstrates the real need for broadband in historically underserved communities, and we are working as fast as possible to review the applications and get the money out the door in the next few months.

With the funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Commerce Department and NTIA stand ready to close this stark digital divide once and for all and open that gateway to success by bringing broadband resources directly to the communities that need them most.

We are long past the days of dial-up, where having access to the internet was a luxury. In order for all Americans to fully participate in our 21^st century economy and truly achieve the American dream, access to reliable, high-speed internet is an absolute necessity.

The critical infrastructure created by this landmark will not only expand broadband and fix our crumbling roads and bridges, but it will also strengthen our nation’s supply chains, which have been greatly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Families here in Georgia and across the country have felt the pressure at the gas pump and the grocery store due to these supply chain issues and related inflation.

Fortunately, President Biden has been aggressively taking on higher prices caused by the pandemic recovery – from expanding and diversifying meat and poultry processing capacity to announcing the largest-ever release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to lower gas prices – and we have already turned the tide on our supply chain issues at our ports, with goods getting back on shelves again after the holiday. With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will build on this progress by rebuilding our supply chains here at home so we can make more in America.

I look forward to working with you all ton continue this progress and look for areas for further collaboration when doing this critically important work. With that, I will turn things over to Congressman Johnson.

Thank you.