The National Telecommunications Information Administration and the Department of Agriculture have a tall order to fill: Get $7 billion out of the gate quickly to start broadband expansion. The two federal agencies are key to the mission to expand broadband access throughout the United States as part of the $787 billion stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in February. However, it's no easy task.

"For the sake of our national economy we've got to do better," said Rick Boucher (D-Va.) who chairs the House Subcommittee on Technology, Communications and the Internet. Broadband, he said, is "as essential as telephone and electricity services were when they were introduced more than 100 years ago."

That's easy to say, but the issue will need to be wrestled to the ground by various government agencies in order to get money going to the right places. The runway for broadband is a short one. The law directs the Agriculture Department and NTIA to award the money by the end of fiscal 2010 and get the projects completed within two years. The bill earmarks up to $350 million to the NTIA to develop a national broadband map, a project many states have already undertaken, reports Internet News.

"Put very simply a state needs to know where broadband is, and where it ain't before it spends its money," said Rachelle Chong, commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission. Whether federal agencies allocating the money and overseeing how it's spent will stay on track and on time is a very big, unanswered question.

For more on broadband and the federal government:
- check out this InternetNews.com article