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Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise to talk about something that is unseen but really impacts every aspect of our daily lives, something that has major implications on the future of my State and many rural States just like the Presiding Officer's rural areas, and that is reliable broadband connection and the implementation of service in our unserved and underserved areas.

Internet connection is something that we often take for granted, certainly in the DC area we do--especially in our cities and urban communities. It is a mainstay of so many facets of our life.

So just think about it. We rely on internet connection for our communication with our family and friends, our emergency services, obtaining information. I have already done that about five times today, getting some additional information--banking, conducting business, and as we experienced firsthand during the pandemic, essential aspects of our workforce participation, the education of our children, and I would add in healthcare here. Even as we transitioned back to in-person work and school post-pandemic, these capabilities are so essential and greatly beneficial.

In West Virginia, our State is the only State entirely encompassed by Appalachia, and we are recognized across the world for our mountainous terrain. So we love our mountains in West Virginia, but our topography in West Virginia has dealt us a challenging hand when it comes to adopting needed advancements to connect people to the internet.

So we know one thing: It is expensive, and it is a lot easier said than done. But this lack of broadband connectivity and reliability is one of the biggest concerns that I hear every time I travel in the State. That is because our homes, our schools, our hospitals, our health clinics, our churches, our businesses, if they lack the appropriate level of connectivity or lack it entirely, you are behind. You are behind. You are not participating. You can't get the help that you need. You can't communicate the way you want to. And in a lot of cases, you are not going to live in a place that doesn't have connectivity. So this is something that must change and something that I am committed to changing.

So one of my first initiatives as a U.S. Senator was launching my Capito Connect Plan to help bridge this digital divide that we see in the country. The plan served as a roadmap for bringing affordable, high-speed internet connection and access to our homes, our businesses, and our classrooms throughout the State. Since launching this initiative, we have made a lot of progress--we have--connecting our communities in our State. We have had a lot of conversation, and, really, we have kind of bridged a lot of what we thought would be the impossible.

We have expanded cellular service in Paw Paw, a very remote area, and in Lincoln County, a very rural area, by initiating searches for providers. We have secured millions of dollars in broadband funding investments through the USDA programs, and we have hosted multiple visits with our FCC officials to bring attention to our State's broadband needs.

Increasing rural broadband funding has been a focus of the Appalachian Regional Commission. I have also supported major broadband builds like Zayo's announcement to connect a fiber optic network right through the North Central part of our State. We have also been receiving critical feedback from listening sessions in all 55 counties, including soliciting all kinds of data back from folks in West Virginia onto our website. Also, when we were leading efforts to craft the bipartisan infrastructure law, I made sure, along with many others, that this was included because this is an essential part of our infrastructure. And we are making a difference.

So we have made a lot of advances. We have. But there is still much more work to accomplish. Now is not the time to look back and see what we didn't do and how maybe we could have done it better. Now is the time to look forward and see where we are and where we are going to be. So we are at a really critical moment here and one we must take advantage of.

We have all prioritized funding and provided funding for broadband in many different pieces of legislation. We have done that every year in appropriations--and I am on appropriations--and I personally have made sure that we have included this not just in the appropriations bill but also in the bipartisan infrastructure package.

So, on Monday, I was back home in West Virginia and got the chance to speak to some of the greatest young men and women in our State at West Virginia Girls State and West Virginia Boys State. It is clear in talking to some of them that our best and brightest are unlikely to stay in our State if they don't have this reliable broadband. It just doesn't make sense. The lack of internet connectivity will impact how they join the workforce, how they further their education or perform the tasks of everyday living that have become so dependent on broadband.

So Congress has a much needed and very important role to play here, and I am confident in our ability to rise to this occasion in the face of this challenge.

But in order to distribute the unprecedented funding that is coming from the bipartisan infrastructure law to the communities and States that need it, we have got to have accurate data.

This has been a flaw in the system. That is why NTIA and FCC have been tasked with developing the National Broadband Map, to determine where the unserved and the underserved communities were located.

Why is that important? Because much of the funding, as it should be, is not to up your service in an urban area or up my service in Charleston, WV, in a more, I would say, suburban-type area, but it is to go to these unserved and underserved areas. We have to have accurate data. So with accurate data, we can work and distribute funding as we should, as is proper.

There is no doubt that the first maps that came out in November were inaccurate. They failed to properly account for the connectivity needs--I know I can speak for my State, but I am sure it is the same all across the country. And this is something that our State of West Virginia, we really took it personally because we know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really get it right.

So they invited challenges. They said if you can identify a residence or a home or business that is shown as being served, and you are unserved or underserved, then you can challenge the map to say that is an inaccurate recording of the status of broadband activity.

So we had over 120,000 challenges of which 86,000 of these were accepted. That means they went back and looked, and working with our State broadband council that has done a phenomenal job, they went back and looked and found that 86,000 homes or businesses that were recorded as being served in actuality had either no service or very little service--something that was considered underserved. This is going to help us as the distribution of the larger sums of money come to actually provide the dollars to get to those places.

These developments are encouraging and the FCC will continue to improve this and two future versions are being planned.

The need for connectivity remains. Updated mapping shows that over 271,000 locations in my State now remain without service. I think some people watching this would probably say: It can't possibly be that you don't have service. But if you get to some of these remote areas, and sometimes they are not even that remote, you get out into some of the more rural areas where there is maybe one provider or there is no competition, it is not an economic model to serve one home that is 10, 15 miles away.

So there are people. When I get a show of hands in classrooms in West Virginia, I get at least 20 percent to 30 percent of the students in those classrooms do not have good service. Think about doing their homework when they get home. They can't do it. Most of it relies on information that you get from the internet. So it really puts those students and those families behind.

While funding will be allocated by the end of this month, we have to make sure also that it is not wasted. Sadly, we have seen this happen. In our own State in 2010, money was wasted when our first chance came along to be able to connect more people. So we have to make sure that that doesn't happen. That is why I have introduced the Rural Broadband Protection Act. It is a bill with broad bipartisan support that would improve government programs responsible for connecting people. I look forward to marking up this legislation in committee here soon.

West Virginians have been persistent and diligent and, honestly, I think, quite patient--but are now very frustrated--throughout the process. They can always expect the same from me, as however they are feeling is however I am going to feel, because that is how you are as a representative.

So I will continue my efforts for these broadband capabilities--to go to that last house, that last home, that last business--in this Mountain State. We are on the cusp, I think, of a major breakthrough here--we are all on board on this--and one that I am committing to see through.

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