Government Closed Monday But Broadband Stimulus Money May Be Handed Out

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Looks like the National Telecommunications & Information
Administration could be handing out more broadband stimulus money even on a day
when the federal government is ostensibly closed.

According to an e-mail from NTIA, the White House's Chief
Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, formerly Virginia's top tech guy, is joining with
Virginia Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner to make what is only
described as a "Recovery Act" press conference.

But since NTIA gives out the stimulus broadband bucks, and the
passcode for the conference call is BTOP (for Broadband Technology
Opportunities Program, the name fore the broadband portion of the stimulus package), it
appears a safe bet that is the reason for the call.

An NTIA spokesperson confirmed that while the government is
closed, the conference call is still on for Monday (Feb. 8) afternoon.

NTIA and the USDA's Rural Utilities Service together are
handing out over $7 billion in broadband grant and loan money.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.