American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Bill)

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) broadband funding update from the State of Michigan Task Force:
On July 1, the federal government handed down guidelines for Round One (of three) for the rural broadband grants under the stimulus package. As you know, the goal of this project is to bring broadband and/or wireless Internet service to our underserved rural areas throughout the state. Over $2 billion is available for this first round, with billions available in later rounds. The application process for this initial round is highly detailed with a fast approaching deadline for submission.

During this initial round, the State of Michigan is working to pair up ISPs and local counties and communities to wire rural areas throughout the state and ensure local needs are met. While it is not submitting a combined proposal for the entire state during this round, the State of Michigan is coordinating among providers to ensure projects align with the broadband vision and to maximize the number of Michigan proposals funded.

To that end, we are creating a set of proposals for computer centers and sustainable adoption in which Michigan's libraries will play a central role. For the first round of funding, these activities will be coordinated with the broadband providers who plan to submit proposals. Although this will limit the number of libraries participating in the first round, we expect that additional libraries will participate in future rounds of funding. For those libraries in first round regions, we will be working with you over the next couple weeks to create and coordinate proposals. We will also be in contact with all Michigan libraries over the course of the next couple months as we prepare for the second round of funding.

From Sheryl Mase, Director of Statewide Services

Now that the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) is published (see http://broadbandusa.sc.egov.usda.gov/files/BB%20NOFA%20FINAL%2007092009.pdf), due to the specificity of the application requirements, the State of Michigan will not be submitting a comprehensive application. Please see the letters from DIT director Ken Theis as well as the broadband infrastructure application.

I will continue to attend the meetings of the governor's task force for the broadband stimulus funding and will share via this list and via this website the latest information on this round of funding and the coming two rounds.

I will be attending a provider meeting tomorrow afternoon (July 15, 2009) coordinated by the Michigan Public Service Commission and the Department of Information Technology at which we expect to learn about their planned project proposals. I hope to be able to share this information and align public computing center funding possibilities with infrastructure proposals based on region. We will also be reviewing the list of "shovel ready" projects submitted back at the beginning of the year for potential collaboration.

Letter from Ken Theis TO: Michigan Broadband Stakeholders. SUBJECT: Broadband Deployment - Request for Assistance.

Letter from Ken Theis TO: Michigan Broadband Stakeholders. SUBJECT: HIGH PRIORITY: Broadband Recovery Funding.

BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE APPLICATIONS.

Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)

The Recovery Act appropriated $7.2 billion and directed the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities across the U.S., increase jobs, spur investments in technology and infrastructure, and provide long-term economic benefits.

The result is the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). BIP will make loans and grants for broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas. BTOP will provide grants to fund broadband infrastructure, public computer centers and sustainable broadband adoption projects.

For details on the definitions and requirements of these programs, please refer to the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). For details on the "Buy American" waiver for the RUS broadband initiative, please refer to the July 1 Federal Register notice.

http://www.recovery.gov - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) official U.S, government website; covers the stimulus package with understandable graphics, charts and other visuals.

http://www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus - ARRA at-a-glance summaries; focus on how the stimulus package relates specifically to libraries

http://www.michigan.gov/recovery - Michigan's online source for information on ARRA

http://michigan.gov/broadband - Michigan's broadband awareness site - talks about ARRA and the state plan for stimulus funding

For More Information:

Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration: www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/top/index.html

Congressional testimony on Recovery Act broadband initiatives from Mark G. Seifert of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/congress/2009/NTIA_Seifert_Testimony_20090402.html

USDA report on Rural Broadband: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/pubs/RDBroadbandRpt.pdf

FCC Launches Development of National Broadband Plan

The Institute of Museum and Library Services launches their "Libraries to the Rescue" Podcast Series Discussions Focus on What Libraries are Doing to Help Citizens Through the Economic Crisis

Sponsorship

The Library of Michigan would like to thank the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy for their generous sponsorship of this program, in particular the close support of Carrie Lowe.

We also extend our thanks to the Library of Michigan Foundation, to the Merit Network for their partial in-kind contribution of the video of the conference and to the Michigan Library Consortium for hosting this site.