The folks in rural St. Landry Parish made a big impression on the vice president of the United States.
But that was because the town of Sunset has been somewhat left behind as the world increasingly revolves around internet connections for work, school and health care access.
“In Sunset, I met with parents who could not apply for remote work jobs, because they did not have a high-speed internet connection at home,” Kamala Harris said at the White House the other day. “In Sunset, I met with entrepreneurs who struggle to start or grow a small business.”
Her comments were part of a rollout of $1.35 billion in federal aid for expanding broadband internet connections in Louisiana.
Across the country, billions will be spent under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to expand better-quality internet access.
Harris recalled her visit to Sunset in 2021 and emphasized it as an example of how much broadband connectivity matters to small-town America.
Of about 3,000 residents in Sunset, some 40% do not have access to broadband speeds that are increasingly not just a part of, but vital to, modern life.
This is a major national effort: 24 million Americans are without internet connections and another 9 million homes and businesses are considered underserved with slow connections and little capacity.
Many of these people are in rural and small-town America, where having the capacity to work, or communicate via broadband with physicians or nurses in telemedicine, is vital to making it in life.
We applaud this initiative and the state and local officials, including Acadiana’s regional leadership, for making it a priority.
In fact, it seemed to be Louisiana day in the East Room of the White House: Veneeth Iyengar, head of Louisiana’s broadband efforts, called ConnectLA, sat on the front row next to former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who is in charge of the White House’s infrastructure efforts. Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, who grew up in the Baton Rouge area, was also on hand.
President Joe Biden, who joined Harris at the announcement, may not be exactly correct in his history: He likened the ambitious plan to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which extended power lines to the most far-flung corners of the country.
“It’s the biggest investment in high-speed internet ever because for today’s economy to work for everyone, internet access is just as important as electricity or water or other basic services,” Biden said. “I wonder if President Roosevelt felt a little like this as he talked about electrification of our farmlands.”
Joe Biden is no Franklin Roosevelt, and he probably won’t claim that lofty a title. One difference is that rural electrification then was a more liberal initiative, in that rural co-ops were and are publicly owned for power. In today’s more conservative vision, the private sector is the beneficiary directly: a heavy subsidy for internet providers who will basically be granted the infrastructure when complete. Other parts of the broader federal initiative are intended to help poorer families with affordability for internet service but that will always be an issue for rural areas.
The federal money vastly expands, though, the pace at which these communities and homes will be served. So like rural electrification, modernity will not leave the country residents behind. Fair enough a parallel, Mr. President.
— The Advocate, July 10
