Proof Congress is clueless when it comes to broadband access

The man pictured at the left is Senator Robert Byrd, all time champion and reigning king of the pork barrel and earmarks. Senator Byrd has successfully driven more federal spending per capita to his home state than any other elected representative in history. West Virginia is home to boundless interstate highways and federal office buildings. If there is a close vote in the Senate, you can bet Mr. Byrd will demand a little something extra for the folks back home before he’ll sway. Based on his actions, it seems Senator will not be happy until every square inch of WV is accessible from a federal funded road and any WV infrastructure project will be done twice for good measure. Now here’s the rub: West Virgina is far behind the rest of the nation in broadband availability.

The Southwest Virginia region around Roanoke and Blacksburg came in dead last in a Scarborough Research report that measured broadband use in 79 U.S. markets, with only 29 percent of adults reporting high-speed Internet connections in their homes.

Ranking one above Southwest Virginia was the Charleston/Huntington market, which reported only 33 percent of high-speed Internet connections in homes, tying with the Fresno-Visalia, Calif., region.

The low number of high-speed Internet connections in the Southwest Virginia region paled in comparison to the rest of the nation, which quadrupled broadband use from 2002 to 2007, according to the Scarborough Research study. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

Please don’t get the idea we advocate federal funding of broadband projects, we couldn’t think of a worse idea. This is just to make a point that the current crop lawmakers in Washington DC are clueless. The fact that man most likely to get the feds to pay for any imaginable infrastructure project in his state has done nothing to improve access in his state on the federal spend is very telling.

Please remember to vote in November.