For decades, the Navajo Nation has been playing “catch-up” in bridging the digital divide. The tragic consequences of the COVID pandemic have revealed the unserved and underserved areas of the Navajo Nation in terms of telecommunications infrastructure to provide broadband access, and put it under a microscope. Ironically, lack of funding is not the issue in bridging the digital divide. Instead, ineffective bureaucracy and lack of adequate planning for the completion of broadband projects on the Navajo Nation is the culprit.
Nonetheless, the federal government has recognized broadband access as a critical issue, and has provided grants to make broadband access a reality. The Federal Communications Commission has a stated goal of universal service for all Americans and Congress recently approved over $42 billion to accelerate efforts to expand broadband access. Since 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect program has awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants and loans to broadband providers to incentivize expanding services in rural areas. There are also federal programs specifically designed to increase broadband access on tribal lands, including two different grant programs managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. But the Navajo Nation is not moving quickly enough.
As a specific example: Education Rate, more commonly known as E-Rate, is a Federal program that provides access and discounts for telecommunications, Internet, and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries. In February 2021, the Navajo Nation announced that the Department of Dine’ Education was awarded $53 million from the E-rate program to connect 90 chapters and 53 Headstart facilities. This would fund construction of over 600 miles of fiber optic cable throughout the Navajo Nation. As a requirement, this project was competitively bid through a Request for Proposal process. Local service providers who currently serve portions of the Navajo Nation applied and some were awarded contracts. However, after more than two years, this project still has not been completed. As a result, the Navajo Nation may fail in fulfilling its contractual funding obligations with the federal government and lose a major opportunity.
If completed, the e-rate will fund 600 miles of fiber optic throughout Navajo. It will lay the main “road” foundation to interconnect communities with fiber optic cabling. Other funding sources will then be used to expand beyond what e-rate will fund to connect homes and businesses. These projects are interdependent on one another. If the e-rate project fails, then all other projects that would have connected to the “main” road could potentially fail as well. That would be a loss of millions of dollars that would have been invested on the Navajo Nation for broadband. It would also be an incalculable loss for the Navajo people.
A June 2023 deadline is fast approaching with no indication of when reviews will be completed. The delays for completion are at various levels. First, there were understandable delays due to Covid at the onset of the project. Now, delays stem from internal reviews by various departments within the Navajo Nation. Despite persistence in following up with Tribal administrators and bringing this to the attention of Tribal leadership, little meaningful effort has been made to address the delays. To add to the dilemma, is the requirement to gain consent from allottees which is a long and difficult process.
It is our recommendation that laws and regulations do not need to change significantly, but internal administrative review procedures must change. The Navajo Nation Council and its standing Committees have made various efforts to address the delay in approvals of ROWs. On June 3, 2020, the Resources and Development Committee passed a resolution that reviewers within the Division of Natural Resources had ten (10) business days to concurrently review an application. However, this is not the practice and the 10 business day review deadline has not been enforced.
On July 22, 2021, the Navajo Nation Council approved a resolution that stated, “the Division of Natural Resources and the General Land Development Department shall present a proposed Plan of Operation for a “One-Stop-Shop” to facilitate review, and approval of rights-of-ways, temporary construction permits, mission site permits, leases, etc., to the Resources and Development Committee within forty-five (45) days after the effective date of this legislation.” After three years, efforts have finally been made to accomplish this, but it has not resolved the on-going issues with review delays.
We gave e-rate as an example of a scenario that is occurring today. However, there are millions of dollars in funding for various broadband projects on Navajo that are in similar situations. These broadband projects are pending review and approval at different stages and deadlines are coming up soon. Although extensions have been granted by the federal funding agencies, there is no guarantee that this will continue to be the practice. If the Navajo Nation cannot spend the funds for broadband deployment, those funds will be reverted and awarded to other Tribal Nations. This will make it difficult to obtain future funding and will reflect poorly on the Navajo Nation.
The issues we have raised are not new. These are issues that apply not just to broadband projects, but also for all other types of public infrastructure. Because of the difficulties in building on Navajo, there have been many lost opportunities for economic development, public safety, education, health care, etc. The most significant, due to bureaucratic inefficiency, is loss of life. There are many stories on Navajo of a life that could have been saved if only there was access to reliable and affordable broadband services.
Now is the time for Navajo to be proactive and take action to address these issues. Time is not on our side.
