US Senate

We write to urge the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to make the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program more accessible to unconnected regions across the country by considering alternatives to the program’s irrevocable standby Letter of Credit (LOC) requirement. One alternative to the LOC requirement is the use of performance bonds, which are commonly used in construction projects.

Twenty senators penned a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to improve access to local media on streaming platforms. Current law and FCC rules state that traditional cable and satellite networks must work directly with a local television station before broadcasting local news, sports, and other programming. However, linear streaming services over the internet are not required to negotiate directly with local television stations.

We write to urge you to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP); which provides over 21 million working families with financial assistance for broadband access; to help bridge the digital divide so they can continue to afford the broadband services they need for work, school, health care, and more. Should ACP funding not be extended, millions of Americans could be at risk of losing access to broadband. We would take significant steps backward in the progress we’ve already made to connect more Americans to the internet through additional federal broadband investments.

Over 40 Republican senators signed a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urging her to abandon her proposal to reinstate net neutrality rules. Re-imposing heavy-handed, public-utility regulations on the internet, they wrote, would threaten the progress our country has made since 2017, and it would steer our country out of the fast lane and into a world of less competition, less choice, less investment, slower speeds, and higher prices. Further, the FCC lacks this statutory authority over broadband internet access.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL-02) introduced a bicameral bill that would increase access to broadband service for low-income urban and rural Americans.  The Promoting Access to Broadband Act would help states increase awareness and enrollment in the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program and Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provide a monthly subsidy to help low-income households pay for their broadband and telephone service. The bill would:

We write to express our strong opposition to a plan circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to expand the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC or the Commission) E-Rate program. This plan would not only violate federal law but also duplicate programs across the federal government, directly contradicting FCC commissioners’ repeated commitments to streamlining federal broadband funding.

Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) led 25 of their Senate colleagues in writing to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expeditiously reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act and restore net neutrality protections. Doing so will allow the FCC to effectively protect consumers from harmful practices online, promote affordable access to the internet, enhance public safety, increase marketplace competition, and take other important steps to benefit our nation’s digital future.

US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2023, to create new protections for people affected by AI systems that are already impacting decisions affecting housing, credit, employment, education, and other high-impact uses.