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The Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) is administered by the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and was established in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). The primary goal of the Recovery Act is to provide a fiscal boost to the nation during its greatest economic crisis. Providing access to broadband services will increase economic development and improve the quality of life for all Americans. BIP
will furnish loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations to
assist with addressing the challenge of rapidly expanding
the access and quality of broadband services across rural
America and to meet the objectives of the Recovery Act.
This section of the BroadbandUSA website is devoted exclusively to BIP news and information.
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Additional information about the funded service areas of BIP awardees and existing RUS borrowers is available through the
Broadband USA Mapping Tool. |
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Friday, October 1, 2010 As of September 30, 2010, all Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) applicants that are receiving an award have been notified. All other applicants will soon receive additional information from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) concerning their applications.
We encourage all applicants that did not receive a BIP award to consider applying for funds under RUS' Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program, Community Connect Grant Program, and the Telecommunications Infrastructure Program. Information on these programs can be found at
http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/index.htm.
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Thursday, September 23, 2010 RUS has issued additional guidance for BIP awardees concerning the keeping of certified payroll documentation, as necessary to comply with the Davis-Bacon Act requirements of the Recovery Act. All BIP award recipients must maintain in its files the original Davis-Bacon Act payroll records it prepares for itself, as well as those prepared by subrecipients, contractors, and subcontractors. The recipient is
not required to submit any of the payroll documents to RUS unless RUS makes a request for such records. The payroll records must be maintained so as to be easily accessed by RUS and by other duly authorized officials.
In the coming weeks RUS will be posting additional guidance on this site for complying with the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act.
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Friday, September 17, 2010 RUS has posted the sample grant agreement for the BIP Technical Assistance Grant Program in the
Information Library.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010 RUS has now posted a
Satellite, Rural Library and Technical Assistance
Application Directory due to the numerous requests that RUS received for this information. This directory provides a listing of the Satellite, Technical Assistance and Rural Library applications RUS received under the Second Round NOFA. |
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More information about
the FCC's National Broadband Plan is available at
www.broadband.gov.
More information about efforts
regarding the Recovery Act is available at
www.usda.gov/recovery,
www.commerce.gov/recovery and
www.recovery.gov.
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