Letter

A variety of lawmakers wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to encourage the FCC to move quickly to clarify rules governing pole attachment regulations in order to remove barriers to broadband deployment: [Sept 2] Reps Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) and Darin LaHood (R-IL),  [Sept 30] Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), [Oct 15] Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), [Oct 19] Rep GK Butterfield (D-NC), [Oct 28] Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Environment Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY).

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA-18) and 13 members of California’s congressional delegation sent a letter to Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland urging him to withdraw the US federal government’s lawsuit against the State of California over its net neutrality law as one of the first actions after the inauguration. “With the new Administration, we have an opportunity to restore the damage the Trump FCC has done to the free and open internet in the last four years,” said Rep.

House  Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau directed the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to add to the Database of Urban and Rural Rates for the Telecommunications Program (Telecom Program Rates Database) rates for all funding requests committed since its launch.

Sen Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai voicing her concerns about the ability of Frontier Communications to meet the obligations required by the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction program. This letter follows the recent announcement that nine providers won bids to cover West Virginia through the RDOF program.

In a letter the leadership of the Senate and the Senate Committee on Appropriations, senators urged full funding for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act and the Broadband DATA Act. The Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (“rip and replace”) created a program to help small, rural telecommunications operators remove equipment posing a security threat to domestic networks and replace it with equipment from trusted providers. Fully funding the Broadband DATA Act would ensure more accurate broadband maps and better stewardship over the millions of dollars the federal go

Public interest, government, civil rights, labor, higher education, and rural advocacy groups urged Congress to offer a federal broadband subsidy in forthcoming COVID-19 stimulus packages. They argue that tens of millions of Americans — particularly low-income families, rural residents, and people of color — lack broadband access, leaving our most vulnerable communities struggling to stay connected with school, work, healthcare, entertainment, and their loved ones during the pandemic.

In a joint letter to Congressional leaders, the nation’s leading broadband and internet trade associations called for immediate action to support and fund critical broadband infrastructure and services that help connect all Americans during this time of great need. The letter urges House and Senate leaders to support bipartisan legislation, before year-end, that provides funding for broadband service for families and students, that clarifies extension of the current CARES Act for network deployment through 2021, and that ensures that the Federal Communications Commission has funding to deve

House Committee Chairs sent a letter to 61 federal agencies requesting information on conversions of political appointees to civil service positions during the Trump Administration. Federal law requires that personnel actions are carried out in a way that the “selection and advancement” of employees in the civil service are “determined solely on the basis of relative ability, knowledge, and skills, after fair and open competition,” rather than on the basis of “partisan political purposes.” In accordance with civil service protections, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requires all ag

Several of Wyoming’s local fiber and cable-based broadband providers recently brought to my attention legitimate concerns that their high-speed broadband networks are likely to be overbuilt by competitors receiving CARES Act grants being distributed through the Wyoming Business Council’s (WBC) Connect Wyoming program.