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The commission plans to use the money to reach 85 libraries serving more than 1 million Texans in rural or low-income areas.
TSLAC received the funding through the Library Infrastructure and Facility Access Improvement Grant (IFAIG) from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The commission worked with the state’s Broadband Development Office (BDO) on its proposal.
The grants are part of a nationwide effort to improve broadband infrastructure and access and will be distributed through a grant process with multiple stages.
Applications will be open in the fall, allocation will begin in the spring of 2024 and all grants should be expended by Dec. 31, 2026, according to a TSLAC news release.
The IFAIG program sits under the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF), which is providing $10 billion across the U.S. to fund critical capital projects addressing “many challenges laid bare by the pandemic … helping to ensure that all communities have access to high-quality modern infrastructure, including broadband, needed to access critical services.”
The funding, launched during the COVID-19 public health emergency, is intended to:
- Improve infrastructure to allow work, education and health monitoring
- Invest in assets that will equalize access to critical services
- Provide Americans with infrastructure, including broadband
Identified uses of this money include:
- Construction and deployment of broadband with speeds of 100 MBPS
- Purchase or installation of assets such as laptops, tablets, desktops and public Wi-Fi
- Building construction or improvement in critical-needs communities
