Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband Program

What this funds

Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband Program For grants for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas, as authorized by 7 U.S.C. $10,767,000 shall be for the purposes, and in the amounts, specified for this account in the table titled "Community Project Funding/ Congressionally Directed Spending" in the explanatory statement described in section 4 (in the matter preceding division A of this consolidated Act)]: Provided, That $3,000,000 shall be made available for grants authorized by section 379G of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act: Provided further, That funding provided under this heading for grants under section 379G of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act may only be provided to entities that meet all of the eligibility criteria for a consortium as established by this section. [For the cost to continue a broadband loan and grant pilot program established by section 779 of division A of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (Public Law 115-141) under the Rural expended, of which $750,000 shall be for the purposes, and in the amounts, specified for this account in the table titled "Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending" in the explanatory statement described in section 4 (in the matter preceding division A of this consolidated Act): Provided, That the Secretary may award grants described in section 601(a) of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, as amended (7 U.S.C. 950bb(a)) for the purposes of carrying out such pilot program: Provided further, That the cost of direct loans shall be defined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974: Provided further, That at least 90 percent of the households to be served by a project receiving a loan or grant under the pilot program shall be in a rural area without sufficient access to broadband: Provided further, That for purposes of such pilot program, a rural area without sufficient access to broadband shall be defined as twenty-five megabits per second downstream and three megabits per second upstream: Provided further, That to the extent possible, projects receiving funds provided under the pilot program must build out service to at least one hundred megabits per second downstream, and twenty megabits per second upstream: Provided further, That an entity to which a loan or grant is made under the pilot program shall not use the loan or grant to overbuild or duplicate broadband service in a service area by any entity that has received a broadband loan from the Rural Utilities Service unless such service is not provided sufficient access to broadband at the minimum service threshold: Provided further, That not more than four percent of the funds made available in this paragraph can be used for administrative costs to carry out the pilot program and up to three percent of funds made available in this paragraph may be available for technical assistance and pre-development planning activities to support the most rural communities: Provided further, That the Rural Utilities Service is directed to expedite program delivery methods that would implement this paragraph: Provided further, That for purposes of this paragraph, the Secretary shall adhere to the notice, reporting and service area assessment requirements set forth in section 701 of the Rural The first change (lines 3 and 6 of paragraph 1) removes language providing funding for Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending for DLT Grants as it is not being requested in The second change (line 11 to 37 of paragraph 2) removes language providing funding for ReConnect Pilot Program and Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending for ReConnect Grants as it is not being requested in 2027. The third change (line 38 to 39 of paragraph 3) removes language providing funding for the Community Connect Grant as it is not being requested in 2027. Table RUS-55. Project Statement on Basis of Appropriations (thousands of dollars)

Extracted from Rural Utilities Service, p. 45. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Contracts funded by this line

4 linked contracts. These are obligations — lifetime awarded money — and they are not comparable to the request above and are never added to it. No total is shown: an award linked to several lines is counted in full on each, so the sum would not be a fact.

Confidence mix · 4 certain

Linked contracts are a floor, not a census. Coverage is bounded by how distinctively a program is named and, for performer links, to RDT&E and Procurement — O&M and military construction publish no performers. Budget figures are FY2027 request dollars; contract figures are obligations. The two measure different things and must never be summed together.

Ask this budget line

Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from Agriculture (USDA)'s Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.