Ashley Hupfl reports in the Daily Gazette that New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced New York state will receive $664,618,251 million in federal funding for high-speed broadband services through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act. A 2021 report conducted by the state Department of Education found that 31 percent of households in rural areas do not have broadband, compared to 26 percent of households in metropolitan areas. In Gloversville on June 26, Schumer said, “We all know that broadband is essential the way electricity or water has been essential for hundreds of years.... In the 1930s [former President] Franklin D. Roosevelt said every home should have electricity. We’re saying every home should have broadband, and this money goes a long way to making that happen in New York state.... The pandemic showed us how much we needed work for it — whether it came to telemedicine or to educate — broadband is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity.” An audit released last month by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that broadband subscription services rose from 64 percent to 76 percent between 2019 and 2021 after similar federal funding from the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program and the Affordable Connectivity Program. Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This transformative investment in New York’s ConnectALL program will be a gamechanger in advancing our statewide strategy to make affordable, high-speed internet available to all.” Read more about this story in the Daily Gazette.