Today I feel like the Grinch, because I see the broadband provisions in the Farm Bill largely killing the USDA loan program and I don’t see anybody else writing about it. I’ve seen dozens of articles praising the new broadband programs created last week by the passage of the Farm Bill. To be fair, three of the announced programs are good news. The legislation created the following outright grants that, while small, are going to bring some solutions for rural broadband. The bill funds these three programs through 2023:

• Funds the Community Connect grants at $50 million annually. These grants have been around for many years and distribute grants based upon an economic test, with grants intended for the poorest areas getting preference;
• $10 million annually in a new program to fund middle mile fiber in rural areas;
• $10 million annually for the grant program that was formerly called the “Rural Gigabit Network Pilot Program” but which has been relabeled as the “Innovative Broadband Advancement Program”. These grants are to be awarded to programs that demonstrate innovative technologies or methods of broadband deployment.

I’ve seen estimates that it might take as much as $60 billion in federal assistance to bring broadband everywhere in rural America and these three grants are barely a blip against the huge rural broadband shortfall – but they are better than nothing.

The flagship broadband announcement in the Farm Bill is the announcement that $350 million a per year will be given the existing USDA loan program, and that the loan awards can now also contain some portion of broadband grants, which might make it easier to build in high-cost areas.

But there is one killer provision of that new funding which I think might make it almost impossible to use. Any area receiving this funding can’t have more than 10% of households that can receive 10/1 Mbps broadband. That’s the same speed test that is being applied to the $600 million e-Connectivity grant program that I discussed in yesterday’s blog. This is a drastic change for USDA loans that currently can be awarded for areas where up to 85% of households can already get 10/1 Mbps broadband. Congress has decided to provide federal funding in the future only for those areas that have no broadband rather than spending money to upgrade inadequate broadband.

If the USDA strictly applies this 10% test I think it will become nearly impossible to get a USDA broadband loan starting in 2019. The 10% test will work for the e-Connectivity grants because ISPs can request funding for small pockets of homes that meet the 10% test. Companies that use the e-Connectivity grants to fund unserved homes can still use other funds to build the rest of a rural area.

But outright USDA loans don’t work that way. Anybody getting one of these loans has to pledge 100% of their company’s assets to the USDA and also give the USDA first lien over all other debt. Since other lenders won’t accept a second lien, then anybody going after a future loan from the program will have to get 100% of the funding from the USDA. And that’s where the 10% test will kill the loan program. There are very few places that still meet the 10% test – at least on paper. The big telcos are going to be claiming good DSL throughout rural America and in most places the big telco DSL is just good enough to cover more than 10% of homes in an area.

I’ve seen this legislation touted as a boon to rural electric cooperatives since many of them are considering building fiber to cover their whole service area. I would venture to say that there is no electric coop in the country that will pass the 10% test for their whole service area – and most of them don’t come even close.

An electric coop won’t be able to use the USDA money to build fiber everywhere – if they carve out USDA money to cover the areas that pass the 10% test, then nobody will loan them the money to build the rest. The 100% pledge and lien provisions of the USDA don’t allow for a secondary lender.

Huge swaths of rural America are now theoretically covered by the various CAF II programs, so those areas either now have 10/1 Mbps or are supposed to get it sometime over the next six years from the reverse auction awards. I believe all areas covered by CAF will be considered ineligible for these USDA loans.

I went back and read the law several times because I saw articles that got the facts of the new loan program wrong. The specific rules for the new programs can be found in the latest copy of the Farm bill, starting at Section 6101.

It’s obvious that the big telcos have gotten to the legislators who are writing this legislation. It looks like the 10% and 10/1 test will be the new norm for getting federal broadband funding. As each year goes by fewer and fewer places will qualify for this funding and monies will go unclaimed. Meanwhile, areas that have really crappy broadband, but where more than 10% of homes have fully inadequate 10/1 Mbps speeds will not be eligible for this funding. I saw articles where members of Congress are claiming that this bill will help to solve the rural broadband problem – but the actual provisions of the new USDA loan program tell a different story. This feels more like a sham than a plan to me.

Please see the attached comment that softens these comments. Turns out that 100 USDA loans in the future won’t have to pass the 10% test – that applies if an applicants wants any grant funding.