Civic Engagement

Over two years ago when I began my fellowship with Benton, I recognized how our cities are changing at an incredible pace. The technology being deployed on our sidewalks and streetlights has the potential to improve mobility, sustainability, connectivity, and city services. Of course, technology can be divisive as well as progressive. Does the potential of the 21^st Century data-collecting, responsive, hyperconnected city benefit us all equally? Is it built with resident understanding, feedback, and consent?

No form of modern technology can replace what’s needed to bridge divides that have deepened during decades of disruption in which few have prospered and many have languished. What’s needed is a voluntary, but expected, national service program that allows people to walk a mile in another American’s shoes. This program — let’s call it the American Service Corps — would send eighteen-year-olds to another corner of the country for a year to live in a new community, complete service projects and interact with folks of varied backgrounds and beliefs.

As not only a Commissioner of the FCC, but as a Black father of two young children who deeply cares about my country and my community, I know that our policymakers must do more to include Black people and other communities of color and create a better world for future generations. We all have a part to play in the fight for equity and, as a communications policymaker, I take it very seriously. I am committed to continuing to advocate for inclusive broadband access and adoption policies and diversity in media ownership.

Stakeholders at all levels of government — federal, state, and local — are pivoting to stay flexible and get creative around the Census amid an unprecedented set of new challenges. While increasing online outreach is helpful to some, it’s also problematic in a place like Detroit, where many residents are on the challenging side of the digital divide, without access to technology or a reliable high-speed Internet connection at home.

Siding with The New York Times, a federal judge has ordered that the Federal Communications Commission must disclose information about users who submitted comments during the 2017 net neutrality proceeding, despite the agency's objections that doing so could compromise people's privacy. US District Court Judge Lorna Schofield in the Southern District of New York ruled that disclosure of the data -- including commenters' IP addresses, time stamps, and user-agent headers -- is in the public interest, particularly given concerns that many comments were fraudulent.

The challenges we face demand an unprecedented alliance between business and government. Broadband is needed everywhere to support vulnerable populations. What’s happening in Seattle (WA), the first US city affected by the coronavirus outbreak, provides a glimpse. A public-private alliance of the region’s largest employers, Challenge Seattle, became the town square for sharing data and best practices, managing the crisis and planning our return to work.

Fourteen House Committee Chairs sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought requesting an immediate extension of public comment periods, hearings and meetings due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The House Committee leaders asked that OMB direct agencies to extend public comment periods by at least 45 days beyond the end of the declared national emerg

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai pushed back hard against suggestions by fellow-FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel that he was playing "hide the ball" with the way the FCC issues its request for comment on the remand of some of its net neutrality dereg order. Rep.

A group of interested stakeholders has cited the coronavirus in asking the Federal Communications Commission to extend the comment deadline on a court's remand of portions of its Restoring Internet Freedom order. In a motion for extension of time, the groups said that "the staff, officials and line level first responders who possess the knowledge necessary to respond to these questions are preoccupied with preparing for, and conducting, emergency responses to a public safety crisis of unprecedented magnitude brought on by the rapid spread of COVID-19." They also pointed out that since the c

The Federal Communications Commission's request for comment on its net neutrality deregulation has become the busiest docket at the commission, drawing over three thousand comments in the past 30 days. According to a thumbnail survey, the comments continue to be general ones calling for the return of the rules and Title II classification, rather than on the specifics of the FCC request.