Letter

On November 22, seven Republican US senators led by Sen Steve Daines (R-MT) wrote to National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) head Alan Davidson about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program: "Unfortunately, in your recent BEAD Notice of Opportunity Funding (NOFO), NTIA excluded broadband service using entirely unlicensed spectrum from its definition of reliable broadband, a stark contrast to Congress’s tech-neutral intent and previous determinations reached by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)." On December 20, Administrator Davidson r

Twenty-six US senators—led by Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Thune (R-SD)—sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel highlighting important next steps in ensuring that the National Broadband Map provides a reliable depiction of broadband availability across the country. The senators are calling on the FCC to:

Color Of Change, Free Press Action and MediaJustice urged the Senate to confirm Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the final days of the 117th Congress. "We are deeply concerned that antisemitic, homophobic, and racist smears against Sohn have contributed to the inaction of the Senate on her confirmation.

Sen Markey and Rep Meng urged Congressional leadership to include $1 billion in the disaster supplemental division of the year-end omnibus for the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), which supports devices and broadband services for students and educators to connect to the internet at home. This funding would be sufficient for the FCC to fund every valid application it received in the most recent application window.

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, 110 organizations representing broadband, housing, education, healthcare, libraries, and state and local governments called for urgent action to ensure unserved households in multifamily residential housing (MDUs) and community anchor institutions (CAIs) are correctly designated in the recently released FCC National Broadband Map. The groups raised serious concerns about the accuracy of the current FCC National Broadband Map and the subsequent challenge process.

To ensure taxpayer dollars are used in the most efficient manner possible, Congress required the Commerce Department's Inspector General (IG) to review the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program grants and make recommendations to address any waste, fraud or abuse.

US Senator John Thune (R-SD) will launch a nationwide oversight effort that will review numerous broadband programs spanning several federal agencies. The primary goal of Thune’s effort is to hold these agencies accountable and ensure that previously authorized broadband funding is being used in the most efficient way possible to protect taxpayer dollars. Sen Thune seeks input on the current broadband regulatory structure from a diverse group of stakeholders, including broadband associations, public interest groups, and free market think tanks.

US Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) led their Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter to the Secretaries of the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce about the need to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities. Internet providers are required to obtain permits from the federal government when installing telecommunications infrastructure on federal lands or for projects using federal funding. Right now, they face extensive delays in the permitting process.

In a November 21 letter signed by Commerce Secretary Raimondo and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, Reps Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Frank Lucas (R-OK) warn the Federal Communications Commission about disruptions to climate data collection in the 1675-1680 MHz band due to spectrum use by wireless providers. "We write to urge you and the Commission to stop consideration of the proposal for sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band for commercial wireless carriers operating in the downlink mode," the lawmakers wrote.

Public Knowledge wrote to the Federal Communications Commission urging them to reconsider calls by the aviation community for rule changes related to C-band deployments. The November 22 letter states that as a consequence of systemic discrimination and historic patterns of red-lining, many of the neighborhoods closest to airports (and therefore within the “buffer zones” around the airports subject to potential mitigation measures) are low-income and/or majority non-white communities.