John Windhausen Jr

The 116th Congress has a golden opportunity to solve the digital divide, by including broadband funding in upcoming infrastructure legislation. President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and prospective Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have all said that investment in infrastructure is an area that they can agree on in 2019. 

Here are a few principles that should guide Congress’ broadband policies:

The Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition filed a letter on April 27, 2017 to express concern with the recent set of inquiries sent by Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to over 100 E-rate applicants seeking support for special construction costs for fiber installation. SHLB said the questions ask for information irrelevant to determining whether an application meets E-rate requirements and suggests new limitations on funding that were not contained in the 2014 E-rate Modernization Orders, the Federal Communications Commission’s rules or USAC’s training materials. SHLB encouraged the FCC and USAC to maintain the existing policies adopted in 2014 that promote competition and cost-effective fiber options for schools and libraries.