Sponsors (2)
The bill channels modest federal funds and improved data/reporting to expand and better target broadband and cybersecurity support for rural farms—boosting precision agriculture and planning—while limited funding, reliance on imperfect maps, and new compliance and reporting requirements may restrict reach and add costs or delays.
Rural farmers and agricultural operations will gain access to high-speed broadband (100/20 Mbps), enabling precision agriculture, modern farm technology, and more reliable online services.
Federal data collection and reporting (broadband availability, speeds, and internet use purposes including precision agriculture) will give farmers, state agencies, and researchers better information to target policy, technical assistance, and funding to areas that lack adequate connectivity.
The program prioritizes truly remote and unserved farmland first, increasing the likelihood that the most isolated communities receive service before less-remote areas.
The program is limited to $20 million per year, which is likely insufficient to fund extensive rural broadband buildouts and will constrain how many farms and communities can be served.
Where broadband maps show residences as already serviceable, those locations are excluded from assistance—so farms that are actually unserved but mis-mapped could be left without help.
Requiring competitive bidding and allowing challenges could delay buildouts and add administrative burden for providers and farmers, slowing deployment and raising transaction costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 6, 2025 by Brad Finstad · Last progress May 6, 2025
Creates a USDA-backed "Last Acre" program to fund competitive grants and loans that bring high-speed broadband (at least 100 Mbps down / 20 Mbps up) to unserved and underserved agricultural land and farm sites. The program sets competitive bidding, buildout milestones (max 4 years), cybersecurity requirements, and reporting to Congress and the FCC, and authorizes $20 million per year for FY2026–2030. The bill also requires updates to USDA farm surveys to collect farm-site broadband subscription, speeds, and uses (including precision agriculture).