The following letter was sent to House and Senate chairs and ranking members of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations on April 20, 1999.

On behalf of a diverse coalition of economic and community development, health care, education, cultural, disability, civic liberties and other civic organizations, we are writing to strongly urge your support for the Administration's FY 2000 budget request for $20 million for the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP). The Administration's moderate request for this very important program is a small increase over the FY 1999 appropriated level.

TIIAP is a matching grant program that brings the benefits of advanced information and telecommunications technologies to rural and other underserved communities. The grants make possible innovative projects that no other federal agencies support. For example, these projects give medical lifelines to homebound elders in isolated rural areas; they create networks of community agencies working together to prevent child abuse; they help bring the resources of the Internet to our nation's most distressed schools and isolated classrooms; and they give inner-city neighborhood residents the tools to strengthen their local economies. The program stimulates crosscutting community-wide partnerships and, through its matching funds requirement, creates lasting public-private partnerships.

This merit-based, exceptionally competitive program has an outstanding track record of supporting highly successful projects that serve as models for the rest of the nation. A recent independent evaluation of the program showed that 90% of projects funded in 1994 and 1995 are still operating and that each TIIAP grant dollar generated another four dollars to support information infrastructure development. The same study found that the projects are having a widespread impact — 79,000 organizations contacted TIIAP-funded projects to request information.

We strongly urge you to provide full funding in the FY 2000 budget for this highly effective program that is strengthening how communities learn, care for our sick, control crime, and create opportunities for people most in need.

Signers to the Letter

Alliance for Community Media

Development Corporation (Washington, DC)

Traill County Economic Development Commission (Mayville, ND)

cc: The Honorable Ted Stevens