Guest Opinion by Congressman Robert Aderholt
On May 3, 2018, I stood in a warehouse at Tombigbee Electric Cooperative in Hamilton, Alabama, alongside Governor Kay Ivey and then–Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, to announce to Alabama and the rest of America the creation of the USDA’s ReConnect Program. That day marked the start of a new chapter in connecting rural America to the modern economy — and it began right here in Alabama.
At that time, roughly 22 percent of Alabamians did not have access to broadband internet, with most of those households located in rural and underserved areas. For too long, the digital divide separated opportunity from the people who needed it most — students trying to complete homework, small businesses looking to compete online, and families who wanted access to telehealth services…