<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>Despite reducing the appropriations committee's 9 billion dollars for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program down to 7 billion dollars, the compromise Senate bill, after the past few days of negotiations, continues to include the following provisions unchanged: "not less than 200 million shall be available for competitive grants for expanding public computer center capacity, including at community colleges and public libraries; not less than $250,000,000 shall be available for competitive grants for innovative programs to encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service".<br><br>And the bill continues to provide that 50% of the funds be used to support projects in rural communities , and continues to allocate the funds originally to NTIA control, with the possibility of its transferring some of the funds to USDA.<br><br>The bill also continues to include "up to" 350 million to be "expended pursuant to Public Law 110-385... and for the purpose of developing and maintaining a broadband inventory map." <br><br>I don't yet find any changes in the broadband tax credits as they had appeared in S. 350 passed by the Senate Finance Committee under Senator Baucus' chairmanship. Those provisions had seemed extraordinarily favorable to Verizon relative to potential competitors: ... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/senate-looks-to-stimulate-verizon/<br><br>A .pdf of the compromise bill is available at: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/senatestimamendment.pdf<br>See pp 8, 11-12, 37-39, 48-57, 498-519<br><br> - Stephen Ronan<br><br><br>
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