Maine 2nd District Congressman Jared Golden will hold a field hearing in Machias Friday afternoon on the topic of helping rural communities get access to broadband service.
“What we are doing with these hearings is trying to find ways to improve upon the programs that a previous congress has made to make sure eligibility to these federal funds is a little more accessible,” he says.
Golden, who chairs the contracting and infrastructure subcommittee of the House Committee on Small Business, says access to broadband has become a necessity for a growing number of businesses. But he says there are many parts of rural America where it is either not available, or too expensive.
“In states like Maine it is always going to be at the end of the day a discussion about how we pay for the infrastructure that would support broadband service in rural communities,” says Golden.
He says the panel held a similar hearing this spring in Minnesota.
The hearing runs from 3:30 to 5:30 at the University of Maine at Machias.
