WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, held a hearing titled, “Wired for Growth: How Expanding Broadband Can Revitalize Rural Small Businesses” to examine how expanding access to broadband in rural areas can help small businesses overcome barriers and achieve economic success.

“Rural entrepreneurs cannot compete on a level playing field because of the lack of access to reliable internet,” said Chairman Williams. “Regulatory burdens are hindering broadband infrastructure from being deployed, and harming small business success. This Committee is taking steps, with the Trump Administration, to reduce red tape, lower the cost of service, and increase broadband deployment in the heart of America, ensuring Main Street has the tools they need to thrive in today’s modern economy.”

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Watch the full hearing here.

Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Rep. Stauber: “It is 2025, and this can’t be accepted as the status quo for our rural communities. Connectivity is no longer optional, and right now, federal broadband programs are too duplicative, too bureaucratic, and too slow to deliver results for Main Street. Ms. Westbrock, you know this better than most. You serve rural Minnesotans every day through CTC. Could you speak to the regulatory roadblocks like permitting delays and redundant reporting that hinder your ability to build and connect our communities?” Ms. Westbrock: “Thank you. It is our primary roadblock during the construction season to get the permitting approved. In one really specific example: as you know, we hope that we can start building in April, and we hope that we can go to mid-October. But then our construction season is over. So, when we have six months of delays for soil testing, that causes our project to get pushed back another year. Then we wait another six months for the state to approve it. We’re now pushed back two years on that project only because of the delays in permitting.”

Rep. Alford: “Given your advocacy for broadband funding and reform, what legislative or regulatory burden do you believe most slows deployment in areas like my district?”  Mr. Todd: “I would say what slows things down is, generally, the permitting process. As you know, there are different levels of permitting and right-of-way access that must be navigated. You’ve got different programs within the federal government, which are not in sync. But you also have state, county, and municipality codes that you must work with. All of those can present delays in getting the permitting necessary to build out a project. That leads to delays and increased costs, unfortunately.”

Rep. Downing: “Farming is a crucial sector in rural economies across our country, including Montana. I am in the Central and Eastern part of the state. Small farmers and ranchers are increasingly reliant on high-tech methods and machinery in order to remain competitive. Precision agriculture tools like GPS, autonomous equipment, drones, and soil sensors—all these depend on broadband for accessing data and operating effectively. So, I’ll start with Mr. Vander Werff. Has unreliable broadband limited your ability to adopt these tools on your farm in rural Michigan?” Mr. Vander Werff: “It has created challenges for us to do so. You have to remember, when we are creating data out in the field, we are creating terabytes of data at a time. That data—even if it is remotely uplinked to a cloud-based server, as a lot of it is—you then have to be able to access that. Even if I have great connectivity through cellular on the equipment, I still have a broadband connection at my office, or this data is useless to me.”

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