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Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

every week I see some variant of this by Republicans: West Virginia senator Shelley Moore Capito voted against the 2021 COVID relief bill. $1.7 million of that funding is being used to bring fiber to rural West Virginia. She now takes credit for the deployment:

capito.senate.govBroadband expansion announced for Randolph, Tucker counties | U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West VirginiaELKINS, W.Va. — A new $4 million broadband expansion initiative in one of the most underserved areas...
Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

Republicans voted down helpful federal programs (COVID relief, the infrastructure bill), but then rename the infrastructure funding something else on the state level so they can take credit for it anyway:

techdirt.comRepublicans Keep Taking Credit For Billions In Broadband Subsidies Only Made Possible By The COVID Relief And Infrastructure Bills They Vehemently OpposedThere’s an historic $50 billion in broadband subsidies currently heading to the states courtesy of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). T…

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Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

One of my jobs is researching and writing about broadband access for the institute for local self reliance, otherwise I'd have no idea. It's not like national or local news outlets are accurately informing locals that their senators are voting against their best interests, then lying about it.

Don Dechert
@dondechert.bsky.social

How was that apportioned to the states? Grants with binding instructions or through other arms of the fed govt? I guess I'm trying to get at who's the decision maker on a project name, because that's where it seems that the link is being forged. And requires a lot of research to explain.

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

Mostly grants driven through either the FCC or the NTIA, doled out to states to manage. The FCC is pretty feckless in terms of messaging and can't even admit telecom monopolies exist, much less punch back against this kind of stuff