Letter

Over the past year, the Biden for President campaign has called on Facebook to meet the commitment the company made after 2016 — to use its platform to improve American democracy rather than as a tool to spread disinformation that undermines our elections. The campaign has proposed meaningful ways to check disinformation on your platform and to limit the effect of false ads. But Facebook has taken no meaningful action.

Approximately 1,900 individuals and organizations wrote to Congress endorsing draft legislation to connect students and library patrons at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The draft proposal, the “Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act,” would appropriate $5.25 billion to an emergency fund to connect the millions of families who don’t have internet at home.

In sent a letter to Congressional leadership on behalf of our 200+ member municipalities, Next Century Cities said that since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States, Americans have faced profound disruptions and been inundated with illustrations of why broadband is essential. Aside from schools and businesses having to embrace digital platforms, local governments found a way to stay operable while providing real-time health and safety updates for their residents in the face of a national emergency.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH), and fellow subcommittee Republican members urged House Appropriators to provide funding for improved broadband mapping, which is vital for deploying broadband and bridging the digital divide.

On April 3, 2020, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to ensure that as the FCC begins the mapping efforts required under the Broadband DATA Act (which President Donald Trump signed on March 23, 2020), that the FCC include community anchor institutions such as health care facilities, schools, and libraries.

On April 13, 2020, Rep Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajti Pai to update the Keep Americans Connected pledge to go beyond the initial 60 days and instead last through the duration of the public health emergency. Additionally, he asked Chairman Pai to expand the pledge to include a commitment to suspend all price increases for the duration of the public health emergency. 

The explosive growth in wireless communications over the last many years has resulted in increasing interplay involving building codes, construction techniques and materials, and wireless communications coverage. In light of this, I believe that there is an opportunity for the Department of Energy and the Federal Comrntinications Commission to collaborate more extensively in order to produce thoughtful building codes that will not only allow the Department to fulfill its mission, but also expand wireless spectrum opportunities, and thus facilitate more consumer uses.

House Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican Leader Bob Latta (R-OH) urged Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) to hold a hearing on bridging the digital divide:

Sens Edward Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson regarding reports that AT&T has a policy of not counting use of HBO Max, a streaming service that the company owns, against AT&T customers’ data caps. Before the Federal Communications Commission acted in 2017 to undo net neutrality, the FCC had the authority to prohibit unjust, unreasonable and discriminatory practices by internet providers, including “zero-rating,” the term used to describe the practice of allowing users to access certain content without the requisit

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) led 15 colleagues in a bicameral letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) urging the leaders to include dedicated funding in future legislation to help ensure that college and university students with the greatest financial need can access high-speed internet during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.