In the State of Tennessee, approximately 422,000 people do not have access to high speed broadband internet that meets the FCC’s guidelines for high speed broadband access. There is a bill currently pending in the State legislature (House Bill 1303/Senate Bill 1134) that would allow Tennessee municipal electric utilities to extend broadband service into areas not served by commercial, for-profit providers. However, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports today that House Speaker Beth Harwell is likely going to deny rural Tennesseans access to Broadband because this bill that would help provide rural Tennesseans with high speed internet would conflict with her ideology.
In discussing her reluctance to support this bill, she states that “my preference would be that the private sector take this over.” Because of this ideological preference, she says she is going to wait for a study to determine whether the private sector can fill this need. Keep in mind, the private sector has already had an opportunity to fill this need, and they have failed to do so over the past several years. But because of her “ideological concerns,” she is willing to make rural Tennesseans wait even longer for access to high speed broadband internet. Moreover, her ideological concerns about allowing the Government to provide this service are not well founded as evidenced by the success that the City of Chattanooga has had in providing affordable, high quality, high speed internet to its citizens.
This story shouldn’t come as too big of a shock, as this isn’t the first time that Speaker Harwell has chosen to care more about maintaining a strict adherence to her ideology over meeting the needs of Tennesseans. In particular, her refusal to spend any political capital to help pass Insure Tennessee, which would cost taxpayers in the State of Tennessee nothing and provide another 280,000 Tennesseans with insurance, also demonstrates her willingness to choose ideology over the needs of the people of this state. If you are a Tennessean fed up with Speaker Harwell choosing ideology over the needs of Tennesseans, call Speaker Harwell and tell her to Support both Insure Tennessee and House Bill 1303. Her office’s phone number is (615) 741-0709.