Tom Allen has introduced the Rural America Communication Expansion (RACE) for the Future Act. This bill aims to improve broadband internet access for people in rural areas through tax incentives, loans, and grants.

I have a personal interest in this one: my father-in-law lives out in Clifton, where the best internet access they have is AOL dial-up. When I looked into broadband alternatives, I found that to get satellite broadband, they'd have to pay $60/month, plus a large installation fee, for access that was capped at 200MB. Considering the .NET 3.5 Redistributable alone is 197MB, this isn't at all reasonable.