Rural broadband money can now pay for satellite internet.
H.R. 10288 — Rural Broadband Modernization Act · Filed by David Schweikert (R-AZ) · Introduced Sep 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill changes the ReConnect program. It lets the government pay for satellite internet to bring broadband to rural areas. Before, the program only paid for ground-based systems. Now any technology that meets speed rules can get money. The Department of Agriculture must report on projects within 30 days of awards. It must also report when projects finish.
Who it affects
Rural people gain access to more broadband options with federal money. Satellite internet companies can now compete for the same funding as ground-based companies.
One thing to notice
The bill sets a speed floor of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. Satellite internet may have higher delay than ground-based systems even at these speeds.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 3, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- ReConnect — A federal program that gives money to bring broadband to rural areas.
- satellite internet — Internet service beamed from space satellites to dishes on the ground.
- Mbps — Megabits per second, a measure of how fast data travels.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,674 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
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