U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is joining what her office describes as a “bipartisan, bicameral call” to include dedicated funding for the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) in upcoming COVID-19 relief legislation.

The NBRC is a federal-state partnership that provides economic and infrastructure development assistance for rural counties across New York. Northern communities have faced unique challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, said a press release from Gillibrand’s office. Additional NBRC funding would ensure the commission can help communities fund and complete existing projects, respond to new challenges, and rebuild for a post-pandemic economy, the senator’s office said.

Specifically, the group of lawmakers pushed for additional funding to:

• Provide economic and infrastructure development assistance to projects in economically distressed communities and ensure the Commission can support current projects that are struggling to secure local matching funds.

• Deploy additional funding to help communities conduct broadband planning, capacity building and feasibility studies; as well as acquire equipment that can be deployed quickly to connect communities to the internet in order to ensure New Yorkers have accessible and reliable broadband as more transition to remote learning, teleworking and online medical appointments.

• Provide additional resources for the NBRC Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) program, which provides small businesses with much-needed financial assistance to respond to and recover from the public health crisis.

The full letter is at https://bit.ly/3f9yCeD .

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