Congress extends rural broadband grants, raises speed standards to 100 Mbps
H.R. 6070 — Community Connect Grant Program Act of 2025 · Filed by Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Nov 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill reauthorizes and updates the Community Connect Grant Program, which provides federal grants to bring broadband internet to rural areas. It raises the minimum broadband speeds required for grant eligibility (from unspecified to 100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload for primary service areas, and from 10/1 Mbps to 25/3 Mbps for underserved areas), clarifies that future broadband commitments count toward eligibility, and extends the program's authorization from 2023 to 2030.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is extending and upgrading federal grant authority for rural broadband deployment. It is a straightforward reauthorization with technical amendments to speed thresholds and program scope.
What the text implies
- Raising minimum speeds to 100/20 Mbps may exclude some rural areas from grant eligibility if they cannot meet the new threshold, potentially narrowing the program's reach despite the stated intent to expand access.
- The inclusion of 'enforceable commitments for network deployment applicable under another broadband funding program' may create coordination challenges or double-counting of federal broadband investments across multiple programs.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
rural broadband service providers; rural electric cooperatives; telecommunications contractors