H.R. 5037 · 119th Congress

Middle Mile for Rural America Act

Introduced on Aug 26, 2025 by Randy Feenstra (R-IA-4). 10 cosponsors, 6 of them from another party. Latest action (Jan 13, 2026): Referred to the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Aug 26, 2025
Cosponsors
10
6 from the other party
Policy area
Science, Technology, Communications
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To expand middle mile infrastructure into rural areas.

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Aug 26, 2025). Public domain.

Middle Mile for Rural America Act

This bill reauthorizes through FY2031 a Department of Agriculture program to support middle mile broadband infrastructure in rural areas. Under the program, middle mile infrastructure is broadband infrastructure that does not connect directly to end users (including anchor institutions) and may include interoffice transport, backhaul, internet connectivity, data centers, or special access transport to rural areas.

The program provides grants, loans, and loan guarantees for middle mile projects in rural areas. It was established in 2018 but has not been funded.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Randy FeenstraR-IA-4Sponsor

Democrats · 6

Republicans · 4

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Aug 26, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Aug 26, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Aug 26, 2025 · HouseReferred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
  4. Aug 26, 2025 · HouseReferred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
  5. Jan 13, 2026 · HouseReferred to the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. Competitive Carriers Association4 reports
    $630K reported (all issues)
  2. NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION (NRECA)4 reports
    $3.4M reported (all issues)

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.