For Immediate Release 
March 23, 2023 

News Media Contact: 
NTIA, Office of Public Affairs, press@ntia.gov 

WASHINGTON – The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today it has awarded two grants totaling more than $25.7 million to two Tribal nations - The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota and the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico- as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).  

With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these new grants bring the total of the program to over $1.75 billion awarded to 135 Tribal entities. 

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to closing the digital divide across all Tribal communities,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This investment in high-speed Internet access for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota and the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico will help people in these communities apply for jobs, access healthcare, and further their education online.” 

These grants from President Biden’s Internet for All initiative will directly connect more than 1,500 unserved Tribal households and community anchor institutions to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.  

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson announced the awards today at NTIA’s Tribal Broadband Leaders Network Summit in Chandler, Arizona.  

“Tribal communities often face high barriers to Internet adoption that hinder their ability to thrive in the modern digital economy,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Alan Davidson. “Today’s grants to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Pueblo of Acoma will reduce these barriers for more than 1,500 Tribal households, connecting them to economic and educational opportunities that many of us take for granted.”    

This award is part of the Biden Administration’s commitment to nation-to-nation engagement and an effort to connect everyone in America, including Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.  

The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is a nearly $3 billion grant program and part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All Initiative. The funds are made available from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ($2 billion) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 ($980 million). The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a historic $65 billion in funding to connect everyone in America. 

President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is growing the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from expanding access to high-speed Internet service, to rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges, to building a clean energy economy that makes our communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.