Politico reports:

President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law promised to help Virginia expand broadband internet to hard-to-reach corners of the commonwealth — investing nearly $1.5 billion to improve a key service across a swing state crucial to Democrats’ hopes in the November election.

But so far, Virginia, like many states, hasn’t seen a cent of that money put to use. The state got news only in July that it was approved for funding — more than 10 months after completing its application to Washington, and nearly three years after the law was signed.

Virginia’s story is just one thread of the messy, delayed rollout of a $42 billion national program championed by Democrats in particular, but with big potential payoffs in Republican districts as well.

In his speech last month at the Democratic National Convention, Biden trumpeted his broadband program in historic terms, calling it a national build-out “not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity.” Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris helped create and promote the program as vice president, and on the campaign trail it could offer a way to show how the White House has delivered for rural Americans.

But as Harris makes her case, the delays have turned what could have been a victory lap for the Biden-Harris administration into a focal point for industry frustration, local partisan finger-pointing and anti-Washington complaints from all corners. [Continue reading…]