NORTH DAKOTA ( KXNET ) — Millions of dollars of funding just opened up, helping keep people in rural America connected. Nearly $173 million is being doled out to connect rural people, farmers, and business owners in the Dakotas and eight other states to reliable high-speed internet.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) ReConnect Program is a central part of President Joe Biden’s plan to rebuild the economy. Officials say this will help drive economic security, helping rural areas prosper for generations to come.

The money is heading to Standing Rock Telecommunications, Inc., and will then be used to deploy a fiber to the premises network, providing high-speed internet to those in the area.

In particular, USDA officials say this project will benefit 426 people, 16 businesses, 104 farms, and three schools in the Dakotas.

In the last couple days, the USDA also gave the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC) a $200,000 grant to provide technical assistance to cooperatives and mutually owned businesses in rural areas in the Peace Garden State. The USDA also awarded nearly $2 million to expand access to clean energy in North Dakota, most of which will be used by individual family farms to build more energy-efficient grain-drying systems.

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