Federal Communications Commission

On April 18, 2023, Federal Communications Commission leadership wrote to Congressional leadership to restore the Commission's spectrum action authority. The FCC's auction authority expired for the first time in the program’s 30-year history on March 9, 2023.

I agree that the Federal Communications Commission should be doing everything it can to speed the deployment of broadband to all areas of the country and that ensuring there is a transparent, fair, and fast pole attachment process that considers the needs of pole owners and attachers is a key part of that effort.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of the Managing Director announced that the service delivery/receipt deadline for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program was April 10, 2023, due to the signing and enactment of the joint resolution ending the COVID-19 national emergency on the same day. This guidance supersedes earlier guidance identifying May 11, 2023, as the service delivery/receipt deadline.

As the Federal Communications Commission continues taking steps to sustain and spur growth within the white space ecosystem, we adopt three orders addressing pending issues associated with white space devices. These actions will provide additional certainty to white space device users and manufacturers to enable unlicensed white space devices to operate efficiently while protecting other spectrum users. In the Report and Order we adopt rules specifying the database re-check interval for the new categories of mobile and narrowband white space devices established in 2020.

In 2022, in recognition of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, I wrote to share my thoughts on the importance of the dedicated professionals who respond to calls to our nationwide emergency number—911. This year, as we mark National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, I am again writing to reiterate my support for the reclassification of public safety telecommunicators as first responders. As I noted last year, 911 operators are among our most essential first responders.

The Federal Communications Commission is committing over $2.5 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country.

On December 20, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act. This Act directs the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform by June 18, 2023.