Author: Joe Lancaster

Joe Lancaster is an assistant editor at Reason. Before that, he was a Burton C. Gray Memorial Intern. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he contributed to the student publication, the Amherst Wire. He lives with his wife and their dog in the Washington, D.C. area, but his heart will always belong to the state of Georgia.

President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill apportioned $1.2 trillion for such projects as roads, bridges, and airports. But it also designated $65 billion “to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet” by funding broadband expansion. This included a $45 billion “Internet for All” program, under which Biden pledged to expand broadband access to all Americans by 2030. But this was not the first tranche of federal funds dedicated to expanding internet access: The 2009 stimulus bill allocated more than $7 billion toward broadband grants for rural areas, and expenditures have grown since. A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the…

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