Sponsors (2)
The bill directs a narrowly funded, targeted program to extend higher-speed broadband and farm-level data to unserved agricultural land—improving precision-agriculture capacity and planning for many farms—while limited funding, matching requirements, administrative burdens, and privacy risks may constrain how much and how equitably it actually connects rural producers.
Farmers on unserved or underserved agricultural land will be able to obtain higher-speed broadband (target 100/20 Mbps), enabling use of precision-agriculture tools (sensors, drones, telemetry) that can raise productivity and reduce operational inefficiencies.
The program prioritizes remote and hardest-to-serve agricultural land and imposes buildout milestones (max ~4 years), which should speed deployment to farms that currently lack service and hold awardees to delivery timelines.
Farm-level broadband data will give farmers clear, site-specific information on whether a farm has service, actual upload/download speeds, and typical uses (including precision-agriculture), helping them plan connectivity investments and operations.
The program’s funding is very limited (authorized $20 million per year, 2026–2030), which is unlikely to meaningfully close the large connectivity gap across agricultural acreage and will constrain overall impact.
Design and administrative requirements create financial and capacity barriers for small or limited-resource producers and local providers: an 80% federal cap (with a narrow 90% exception), required non‑Federal matching, documentation to verify limited‑resource status, and competitive bidding/process rules that tend to favor larger incumbents.
Collecting and publishing detailed farm- or location-level broadband data raises privacy and confidentiality concerns for farmers and rural communities if protections are inadequate.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a statutory "Last Acre" program to advance farm broadband and precision-agriculture connectivity and requires USDA surveys to collect farm-level broadband subscription and speed data.
Introduced May 6, 2025 by Brad Finstad · Last progress May 6, 2025
Creates a new federal "Last Acre" program to promote high-speed internet and precision-agriculture connectivity on farms and other agricultural land, and requires USDA surveys to collect more detailed farm-level broadband subscription and speed data. The bill defines eligible producers, providers, land, and key terms (including references to FCC broadband definitions and federal broadband maps) but does not appropriate funding or set operational deadlines.