Organizing NM’s broadband efforts

SANTA FE — The state Legislature is considering a bill that would consolidate the efforts of multiple state agencies to expand highspeed internet.

The effort comes a year into the pandemic that has pushed education and health care online, eroding residents’ access to public services proportional to how far they are from an internet connection.

“We watched the collapse of our educational system during COVID and during the shutdown. And we all were watching our kids and our grandkids dealing with this problem,” Democratic Rep. Susan Herrera of Embudo said.

The Connect New Mexico Act introduced by Herrera and four others could increase the rate at which broadband is expanded.

The bill made it through a House committee focused on infrastructure Tuesday in an 8-1 vote.

If passed, it would allocate $950,000 to create a broadband clearinghouse within the Department of Information Technology. The new agency would distribute an existing $19 million fund to match federal broadband grants, a task currently shared by DoIT and others.