The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend another $667 million on rural broadband loans and grants, the department said Monday, marking the fourth round of Biden administration funding under a program that the 2021 infrastructure law invigorated.

LINCOLN — Built in 1869, the stately Kennard House was intended as a show of confidence in the selection of Lincoln as the capital of the then-2-year-old state of Nebraska.

It was one of three brick homes built for the three members of a commission that picked Lincoln over Omaha as the seat of government for the fledgling prairie state.

With rents soaring since the COVID-19 pandemic tightened the housing supply, more local governments are considering rent control to keep increases in check and, ideally, protect struggling tenants whose incomes haven’t kept pace.

At the same time, some states are enacting measures to prohibit cities from adopting rent control, a policy that has long divided economists and housing experts.