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By Freedom Foundation of Minnesota
The Capitol, Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A congressional subcommittee oversight hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., will focus on “whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth” out of $7.2 billion in broadband grants and loans under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Two northern Minnesota projects were singled out in the hearing memo for the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology: a $1.7 million grant to the Leech Lake Reservation Business Committee and $66 million in federal loans and grants to Lake County, Minnesota.
Congressional investigators noted in the memo that the Leech Lake project was among a number of initiatives that “never got off the ground or have been halted. The Leech Lake Reservation Business Committee in Minnesota declined its $1.7 million grant on the grounds that it would not be able to meet its grant requirements.”
The Lake County project was highlighted as an example of a project that has raised industry concerns about possible overbuilding of existing systems instead of extending service to unserved areas as required by the terms of the federal funding agreement.
Read the full story at FreedomFoundationMN.com.
