Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and Little Rock Public Radio.

Welcome to Arkansas week.

I'm Michael Heflin.

It's now considered by many as essential as water and electricity.

Coming up, the latest on a project aiming to expand High-Speed Internet Service to all parts of the state.

But we begin in Washington with several pressing matters.

Alex Thomas is congressional correspondent for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Alex, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Michael.

Always great to be on.

Let's start with efforts in Congress to pass a funding bill.

We've got just over two weeks left in the federal fiscal year.

An agreement will need to be reached by the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown or the need for a short term fix.

The white House is encouraging Congress to pass a stopgap spending bill to extend funding through the end of January.

But some in the president's own party don't want to push this off, including Arkansas's third district congressman.

Negotiations are ongoing.

Are you feeling a sense of urgency kicking in?

Yeah.

I think when lawmakers return right after Labor Day, that urgency hit them straight like a truck.

Because on the appropriations side of things, the Senate and House appropriations committees are on different pathways here.

The House Appropriations Committee just wrapped up its work last week for this week.

And then on the Senate Appropriations Committee, they're going a little bit slower.

But that work has been a little bit more bipartisan in contrast to the House Appropriations Committee.

Now, like you mentioned, Representative Steve Womack has been very vocal about the appropriations process.

He is a senior House Appropriator.

He leads the transportation, housing and Urban Development Subcommittee.

And when I've talked to him, he's been very adamant about not being willing to back another CR.

He says Congress has long forgotten how to pass budgets, how to handle its fiscal order, and it's time for Congress to do that.

So what will this look like at months end?

Really?

We're still trying to see how that picture is going to shape up.

But if Steve Womack is saying that he's not willing to jump on board with the CR, who else is willing to make that jump with him?

Because Steve Womack is probably one of the last people on Capitol Hill that wants a government shutdown.

He's held his nose multiple times, at least during my time covering Congress for the ADG, and I think he's tired of holding his nose.

Yeah, and on Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to advance the 12 funding bills.

Womack, in a statement Wednesday night, said, And I'll quote here.

It's now time for the rest of Congress to finish the job, leave Biden-Harris funding levels in the past, and pass the FY 26 appropriate action bills that are tuned to the current needs of the American people.

So he's really just trying to push this forward.

Seems like he wants to make this happen, or at least bring it to a vote this month.

Right.

And when we're talking about CRS, Michael, continuing resolutions, what those do is they keep funding at the same level.

They're not increases.

They're not decreases.

Same level throughout.

So when Congress passed its CR back in March, it continued funding from the Biden-Harris administration from another CR that Congress had to pass at the end of 2024.

There's a lot of CRS when you come up here and work, and you're kind of keeping track of them, and it can get confusing as a result.

But the issue right now is that Congress is operating under a CR.

The House has passed their bills.

The Senate is not as far along in terms of the Appropriations Committee.

But you also have the issue of can Senate Democrats back a plan that also will get Senate Republicans approval because Senate Republicans have 53 votes, they need seven Democrats on board, and Democrats just aren't willing to go through what they went through in March.

When it came to that CR, the negative publicity, the confusion, they're just not willing to go through that whole process again just to avoid a government shutdown.

When Republicans control both chambers of Congress.

And what are other members of the Arkansas delegation saying about this?

Well, I think the big member when we talk about appropriations is Senator John Bozeman.

Senator Bozeman is a senior Senate appropriator.

He leads the subcommittee on Veterans Affairs and Military Construction.

And he is very adamant that Congress needs to get this done.

It has long forgotten how to do this, but at the same time, like I mentioned, the Senate and House are on two different pathways here.

How are we going to find a way to make everyone get on the same plan together by the end of September?

I mean, miracles happen every day, but you need some serious miracles up here to avoid a government shutdown.

At least that's what the mood has been in the last few days.

But the picture is still murky.

We still have a few weeks, and that picture may clear up and we may avoid a shutdown.

We may pass the CR, but again, we're still in this weird phase right now where we're trying to unplowed the picture on to a crisis for Arkansas's top industry.

You reported that agriculture leaders from the state recently visited Capitol Hill seeking assistance and more resources.

What's the latest?

Right.

And I watched last week's program.

So this is a great follow up to those who watched last week's episode of Arkansas Week.

Members of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas were up on Capitol Hill talking to not just the delegation, but also representatives of the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And the reason why they're up here is because despite what we saw with the one big beautiful bill, changes to agriculture programs, changes to reference prices, there is still this concern that farmers may not make it into the next crop year.

Joe Mincer, who leads the Agricultural Council of Arkansas, told me that he had one lender tell him that upwards of 40% of Arkansas farms may not make it financially into that next crop year.

The current financial situation is just that bad because of a multitude of factors low crop prices, high input costs, but also tariffs that the Trump administration has put down on countries that farmers need to get goods from.

Joe Mentzer told me that he had a $500 tariff fee for one part for his farm in Lake Village, and he wants his tariff money back.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, if they do pass some form of economic assistance, why not use the money that the United States has gotten from those tariffs and give it back to farmers?

That's one idea that they have floated to me.

But do we have anything on paper yet?

No, that's the hard part.

So we're going to see how this all shapes up.

But farmers are in desperate need right now.

And again, this may just be a Band-Aid.

This is an open wound that's been just not taken care of.

And economic relief may just be a Band-Aid on a larger problem.

Okay, well, an update on a, item you mentioned last time you're on the program.

Priority for Congressman Bruce Westerman, of the fourth district.

He's wanting to scale back environmental evaluations for new energy and infrastructure projects.

And we had some action Wednesday in the House Natural Resources Committee.

Tell me what we saw.

So I think this is an opportunity for Congress to exert their article one authority and to create a system that doesn't, change when an administration changes, but a system that's fair.

A system that allows access for all projects and a system.

That's that's blind to the project that is being proposed, as we've heard from, a lot of witnesses, reforming Nepa will provide certainty for all projects and for all sectors of the economy.

We went into the clip a little earlier than I had anticipated.

But, Nepa National Environmental Policy Act 1970, law mandating federal agencies review projects and their potential impacts.

Give us a little backgrounder on what we just saw.

Right.

So Nepa is a law from the 1970s that requires federal agencies to review the environmental impacts of energy and public projects.

And the issue, from Congressman Wasserman perspective, is that the Nepa process has stretched out the timeline for a lot of projects.

Instead of focusing on the immediate environmental issues or focusing on what could happen, what may happen, and there's been a bunch of litigation that's really halted projects.

So here's Bill the speed Act.

What it would do, it was it would narrow the focus of those environmental reviews saying, hey, if you have a project in little Rock, Arkansas, we're going to focus on the environmental impact in little Rock, Arkansas.

We're not going to focus on things that may happen in New Orleans or Memphis, just in little Rock, Arkansas.

And it also addresses that litigation question, shortening the timetable to challenge those projects and also limiting those challenges to people who participate in the public comment period.

So if you have a new organization that just opposes, let's say, natural gas projects or solar projects, they can't just file a lawsuit because they hate a project.

They need to be involved in the process throughout in order to make a legal claim later on.

And this is still, in the very early stages.

But Democrats argue, this would, essentially allow companies to complete projects at the expense of accountability and environmental protections.

Right.

And Jared Huffman, who is a California Democrat, he is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

He's willing to support some changes to the permitting process in that hearing from Wednesday.

They talked about changing the filing system.

They talked about getting report made to understand Nepa better.

And he said, hey, Democrats could support this.

We want to make the permitting process better.

But then he got to the Speed Act and said, that's not that's not a way that we should fix the problem.

And their concern is that when you narrow the environmental focus, you're going to leave a lot of the picture out.

And changing those legal challenges is not going to be productive and protecting the public's interest.

And this also comes at a time, Michael, where the Trump administration has really just pushed back against solar and wind projects.

The Department of the interior has actually increased its scrutiny of those kind of projects, all while the Trump administration has embraced fossil fuels like coal and gas.

All right.

We're now less than, 14 months away from next year's congressional elections.

Next spring, there will be some primary fights.

Tell me about some of the key races.

You're following for Congress.

So let's start with the big race when it comes to federal offices.

And that would be for U.S. Senate Senator Tom cotton.

He is seeking a third term.

You all know Senator Tom cotton.

He was a representative in the fourth district, and now he is one of the top dogs when it comes to Senate Republicans.

He is the conference chair, but he has some Democratic opposition that's building.

Hawley Schaffner, who's a farmer from the Newport area.

Lewisville Mayor Ethan Dunbar is another gentleman who is seeking to challenge Tom cotton, along with Jane Russell.

James Russell, who ran for governor back in 2022.

So we're seeing some Democrats willing to launch a bid.

Tom Cotton and I been looking at some election analysis here.

And all those analysis show that Arkansas, in terms of that Senate race, is going to be a safe Republican contest.

But any good Republican pollster and any good Democratic pollster will tell you the race isn't over until it's over.

So those Democrats need to find a way to get their messages out and make their case to voters across the natural state.

In the second district of Arkansas, we have a good Democratic primary brewing between Zach Huffman, who is a newcomer to politics.

He was involved in education.

He launched his bid for Congress after the Trump administration opted to dismantle the Department of Education.

And then you have Chris Jones, who ran for governor back in 2022, was the Democratic nominee against Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

He's been very active politically.

He ran for a position with the Democratic National Committee, and he thinks that he can make his case in central Arkansas and be the next congressman replacing French Hill.

All right.

Well, finally, less than a minute in this segment, but the killing this week of, conservative talk show host and activist Charlie Kirk, has generated a major reaction.

You've been gathering the thoughts of Arkansas's political leaders.

Anything in particular stick out to you?

Well, the one thing that stuck out to me the most is the call for ending political violence.

And I think we've seen in recent years, heck, even recent months, the spike in political violence between the attacks on the Minnesota lawmakers, obviously, the CDC shooting that happened this summer, and it's just this pattern of political violence, and the members of the delegation are putting their hands up saying, we've got to stop this.

This is getting too much.

We need to address this.

This has no place in political discourse.

But at the same time, though, like I mentioned, we've seen multiple incidences just this year alone.

So will this be a change and will we actually see something to make this stop I don't know.

That's Alex Thomas, congressional correspondent for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Alex, thanks as always.

Thank you, Michael.

Appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

And welcome back.

High speed internet service is increasingly viewed as an important utility.

Much like water, gas and electricity.

Arkansas is seeking approval for federal funding to cover the cost of building out the infrastructure and achieving universal broadband coverage.

The state submitted a final proposal earlier this month.

And joining me to talk about it is Glenn Howey, director of the Arkansas State Broadband Office.

First, this has been an extensive project, years in the making.

Tell me what has gone into preparing this application.

Yeah.

You're correct.

First, thanks for thanks for having me, to talk about, you know, our bid program in Arkansas, which really is one of the best in the country and one I will talk more about that, in a second.

And really, it has been a multi-year process, really, you know, beginning with the investment, act 2021.

And I came into this role in August of 2022.

And really, that first day on the job, we were planning for this program and now we're into 2025.

Right.

So it's been a multi-year, process through, two different administration is now with with some tweaks to the program earlier this year.

But but really, you know, you were you were correct when you opened the segment.

This really is Arkansas's blueprint to achieving universal broadband access across our state.

And we couldn't be more excited.

And you mentioned the changes earlier this year.

This was on the federal level.

Yeah.

Correct.

You know, really this program for Arkansas, we were one of only 19 states in the country, to have an allocation in excess of $1 billion, which really represents, the single largest, publicly funded investment in broadband infrastructure in our state's history.

And as part of this program and earlier this year, the new administration, really, with the goals of reducing red tape and reducing, the taxpayer burden, implemented, some, some changes and adjustments to the program, which we very quickly were able to implement.

We're very proud of that fact.

And ultimately, produced one of the best outcomes in the country on this particular program.

And so we we took those, changes in stride, applied them appropriately and correctly and specific to Arkansas, and found an Arkansas way to move forward.

And we did.

And, the results, have been fantastic.

And the numbers here, about $300 million, 79,000 homes and businesses in the state.

Governor Sanders has said this is way more than just faster internet service, but this is about, education, business, health care, as well as community engagement from people.

Explain what's envisioned here and why this is so important for Arkansas.

Yeah, absolutely.

Look, this has been one of the governor's top priorities, you know, since she came into office.

And we've been proud to execute on that vision.

As you said, there's about 79,000 homes and businesses that will be the recipient of high speed internet access as a result of the Arkansas, bid program.

Really, every county is impacted in touch.

There's no county, with, with without locations that are part of this program.

So it's a it's a statewide impact.

And you're right.

This is, much more than simply getting access to high speed internet for the very first time.

You know, whether it's a grandmother who can now see a cancer specialist out of town, instead of having to drive there to visit them, or a farmer who needs to increase their crop yields with precision ag technology and can do that, or the little second grader who, instead of having to go to McDonald's to do their their homework, can now be at home right with their parents, and do their homework at the kitchen table, right, as a family.

And so this is really a huge impact across the state.

Of the $308 million that's been preliminarily, awarded to 23 providers across the state, over 200 million of that has been preliminarily awarded to Arkansas based companies.

And so if we think about the economic impact and the multiplier of four.

So for every $1, of broadband infrastructure investment yields a $4 return in the local economy, the fact that we've been able to preliminarily award over $200 million to Arkansas based companies is a huge, economic multiplier for our state.

And what are the, the hurdles that, face this, project?

Yeah.

Moving forward, you know, we were able to take, a really good step this last week.

As you said, we submitted the final proposal, to NTIA.

But there's some more steps moving forward we're going to go with with before NTIA and U.S. Commerce, and they have to do a review, of our program and of our results, and get approval from both, NTIA and next, which are two agencies under the US Department of Commerce.

Then we'll come back, to Arkansas locally and get, appropriation approval from the Arkansas Legislative Council.

And then at that point, we can execute Grant agreements, with our providers once they, check all the boxes, they need to check.

Right.

So we're getting closer.

And ultimately, we would project that construction would begin on these projects covering the 79,000 locations across the state, first half next year.

And you're confident about the prospects for the state?

Absolutely.

Look, you know, we were able to design a program that was right for Arkansas.

We leaned in to a market driven principle.

So our program was highly competitive.

Market driven approach.

We had 49 internet service providers apply to compete in our program, 29 from inside the state of Arkansas, 19 from out of state.

That's how attractive our program design was to investment.

And so we had heavy, heavy competition.

You look at the results that we achieved.

We had 730 applications come in to serve those 79,000 locations across the state.

With an average application of 3.1.

So every eligible location in Arkansas, whether it was a home or a business, on average, received 3.1 applications to serve that particular location.

Right.

So, tremendous competition.

And we're very happy with, with what's resulted.

And one interesting thing has been seeing, a change in the priority in terms of how internet has brought, fiber being, considered much more optimal than, satellite.

Right.

And it was thought satellite.

Well, it's cheaper, but there has been kind of a prioritization of fiber.

Yeah.

Look, you the program one of the one of the adjustments that the new administration made out of Washington with the program earlier this year was to take a more technology neutral approach to the program and, and really, Arkansas's mantra this entire time has been to evaluate every single application from every single ISP, with every single technology, that was proposed to be used.

And when we did that, you know, we ended up with a break down.

If you look at the technology percentages across the state for these locations, 76% of the locations, are going to be subject to a fiber grant award.

16% of the locations will be subject to a Leo satellite system.

So folks at home can think about Starlink or the Amazons system that's come online shortly.

7% of locations will be met with a fixed wireless, solution and 1% of locations with a hybrid of those technologies.

So really, overall, our program was able to to evaluate every application in a technology neutral manner.

But at the end of the day, we were able to select the right project with the right technology for the right location and a reasonable cost to the taxpayer.

And one interesting item I read, the proposal also identified, a thousand community anchor institutions.

What are these?

Is this to fill kind of a void if.

Sure.

And this is one of the, less talked about aspects of the program, but really maybe have some of the most impact and that is that community anchor solution topic you just mentioned.

You know, if we think whether it's a school or a fire station or a health clinic, or a library, these community anchor institutions across our state, we identified over 1000 of them that lacked, what we felt as far as, the necessary, internet access of those particular locations.

We were able to add those into our program and ultimately, have a grant.

Award for every single location in the state.

So not only the 79,000 homes and businesses, but also all of these community anchor situations.

And we're proud to say that we're one of the few states that was able to achieve 100% coverage through these grant, awards for our locations.

And you mentioned the timeline and may have mentioned this, but how soon do you expect Arkansas will learn what the review and, whether or not we've met the criteria?

Yeah, absolutely.

First thing I would say is we have a, a visualization dashboard that's publicly available, for all stakeholders, the general public.

Can go to our website at broadband.arkansas.gov and click on the little bead tab at the top and scroll down.

And there will be a publicly available dashboard that lists, every single provider that has been preliminarily selected by Arkansas, all of the locations and technologies that's all available for public viewing, today.

And we know a lot of the ways that, broadband service is used.

And, you know, a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about, health care and how more and more online, virtual, appointments are grown.

But how do you envision why is this so important for Arkansas's future, just beyond the ways we might be thinking about it now?

Moving forward, what are you thinking?

How will this help?

Oh, sure.

Look, this is a this is a necessary, you know, investment.

Well, first of all, I would say that for you, I think stakeholders and the general public should understand this is an example of what good government can do, right?

When we have government come together and public private partnership with private industry, and accomplish things, for Arkansans, again, an example of what good government can do, for our people.

You know, I would say this investment is necessary.

And then if we think about what it takes moving forward as a society and as a state, as artificial intelligence and AI continues to make a bigger impact on our lives, you know, it's only going to increase.

So everything that that someone does, whether in their personal life or their professional life, is going to be driven by internet based solutions.

And that's only going to increase as we move forward.

So, for us to, to have the goal of being the first fully connected state, in the South, if not the nation, is is a huge economic, development impact for our state.

And do you see this as being beneficial for, say, attracting industry to the state or it's growth?

Absolutely.

When you look at, you know, what brings, economic development projects, right, to Arkansas, whether an entity is looking to relocate to Arkansas for the very first time or expand within the boundaries of our state, right.

Internet connectivity, for those to for those actions is critically important.

Right?

So as we continue to build out our state with internet access, that's going to open up, more locations, right?

That can be relocated to by a private firm.

And really continue to build economic growth in the state, offer additional job opportunities, and, really driving opportunity, as the governor said in her statement, is what this is all about.

Glenn Howey, thanks so much for coming by to join us.

Pleasure to be here.

Thank you.

And I'm Michael Palin.

We'll see you next time.

Support for Arkansas Week, provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and Little Rock Public Radio.