STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI Re: Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90. This is a good day for rural America. Today’s order makes available almost half a billion dollars for the deployment of broadband in areas served by price-cap carriers, while ensuring that public funding does not displace private investment. Any money that is not accepted will roll over into the next phase of the Connect America Fund and support broadband build-out in these same areas. And all of this will be done within the budget set forth by the Universal Service Transformation Order.1 I hope that these reforms herald the arrival of broadband in currently unserved parts of our country. And I thank my colleagues—particularly Chairwoman Clyburn and staff of the Wireline Competition Bureau—for collaborating with me on this item and incorporating a number of my suggestions. 1 Connect America Fund et al., WC Docket No. 10-90 et al., Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 26 FCC Rcd 17663 (2011) (Universal Service Transformation Order), pets. for review pending sub nom. In re: FCC 11-161, No. 11-9900 (10th Cir. filed Dec. 18, 2011).