WATTSBURG — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday traveled to this rural northwestern Pennsylvania community of 348 to detail the start of a $7.2 billion stimulus program to expand access to high-speed Internet service.
Biden, who was accompanied by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie, spoke to a noontime crowd of about 200 at Seneca High School in Erie County's farm country.
Calling the program a downpayment toward the future, Biden conceded $7.2 billion would not connect every unserved home and business to high-speed broadband service. But he said the Obama administration hopes it will kick-start the effort.
"This is about leveraging hope, leveraging change," he said. "Today's announcement is a first step toward realizing President Obama's vision of a nationwide 21st-century communications infrastructure."
Biden's visit coincided with the release of loan and grant application guidelines for the first round of funding. The departments of Commerce and Agriculture, which will administer the program, will accept applications for the first $4 billion in loans and grants from July 14 to Aug. 14.
The money can be used to build infrastructure to extend broadband service to underserved areas, expand public computer centers and provide training in Internet use.
Although ticketholders began lining up outside the high school on an overcast morning nearly two hours before Biden's speech, organizers had apparently hoped for a larger turnout. Shortly before Biden's entrance, volunteers removed about 30 folding chairs.
Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason later chided Biden for grandstanding in Pennsylvania while supporting the federal cap-and-trade bill.
"I find it incredible that Vice President Biden would visit our energy-rich commonwealth while supporting the job-killing national energy tax known as cap-and-trade," Gleason said in a prepared statement. "This massive tax increase will cripple Pennsylvania's energy industries, including the coal and natural gas sectors. "
Erie County residents who heard Biden speak showed mixed emotions.
Lyle Bisbee, a 71-year-old dairy farmer from Union City was disappointed. He and his wife, Ilene, have slow dial-up Internet service. But Bisbee, who milks 210 cows a day, said he's more worried about the price of milk.
"We thought with the secretary of agriculture here, we might get a chance to discuss our problems with the price of milk," he said.
Kathy Nies, a 58-year-old designer who works for an Erie County publishing company, welcomed Biden's news.
"We've had (broadband) for over a year now, but about a mile away you can't get it. It's frustrating to suffer through the slow access. My husband used to say he could turn on the computer, get a cup of coffee, drive to Erie and come home before it would finally come up," Nies said.
Vilsack, a Shaler native, said high-speed Internet will allow farmers to access markets without a middleman. But just as important, he said, it will allow small businesses to access a global market and thrive in rural communities.
"I think as these resources are invested people will realize they don't have to leave rural America for economic opportunity," Vilsack said.
Although it's unclear exactly how many Americans lack access to high-speed broadband service, Penn State professor Ted Alter, co-director of the Center for Economic and Community Development and a specialist in rural economics, said underestimating the importance of such service would be a mistake. He likened it to rural electrification and the expansion of telephone service.
Leatrice Young, 78, said she and her husband, Aldon, turned out for the man, not the message. "I am here for Biden, not broadband," she said.
Young beamed as she and her husband left the high school gymnasium.
"I got a kiss from the vice president," she said.
Later in the day, Biden attended a fundraiser Downtown benefiting the Democratic National Committee at the Rivers Club.
Staff writer Salena Zito contributed to this report.
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