Op-Ed

On September 9^th I testified to the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology at a hearing entitled “From Introduction to Implementation: A BEAD Program Progress Report.

McKee (KY) is a small town that sits mostly within the Daniel Boone National Forest and is about a one-hour, 20-minute drive from Lexington (KY), the nearest big city.

A federal judge recently told us what we already knew: that Google is a monopolist in the Web search market. In his scathing 277-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta noted that Google has an 89.2 percent share of the overall search market and a 94.9 percent share of searches conducted on mobile devices. Fixing the problem will be tricky.

As a lifelong disabled person who constantly copes with multiple conditions, I have a natural tendency to view emerging technologies with skepticism. Most new things are built for the majority of people—in this case, people without disabilities—and the truth of the matter is there’s no guarantee I’ll have access to them. AI could make these kinds of jumps in accessibility more common across a wide range of technologies.

The Democratic party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA), was never the border czar, despite her political opponents’ attempts to label her as such. If VP Harris has ever had a Biden administration czarship (although not with an official title) it was in artificial intelligence (AI). AI might lack the political resonance of the border today, but it is time we reconsider its significance to the average voter. When AI is recast as a sweeping change that could affect jobs, income equality, national security, and the rights of ordinary citizens, it is rather quickly tran

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals threw federal broadband policy into chaos recently by declaring the Universal Service Fund unconstitutional. The decision threatens to shut down the Federal Communications Commission’s longstanding system of collecting fees from telecommunications customers to subsidize rural broadband deployment and Internet access for low-income households, schools, and other programs. For years, policymakers have acknowledged the need to overhaul the USF because of its ballooning fees, potential for waste, and outdated priorities.

Between 2019 and 2021, the number of Ohioans working from home tripled, demonstrating the vital function of high-speed internet services like broadband in Ohio’s workforce. Additionally, remote learning, telemedicine and other online programs continue to thrive well after the pandemic.

In the coming months, more than $42 billion in federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds will be distributed among U.S. states and territories. Federal and state policymakers have key roles to play in supporting the efforts of the BEAD program. On the federal level, policymakers should focus on removing regulatory barriers rather than erecting new ones.

Republican or Democrat, one rare issue that can unite every American is the need to provide affordable internet connections to everyone. In today’s digital world, access to broadband internet means access to jobs, education, health care, and social opportunities.

Project 2025 echoes Donald Trump’s critical view of the media. As a result, it proposes to strip public broadcasting of its funding and legal status, thus endangering access to reliable news for American citizens. The authors allege that Big Tech colluded with the government to attack American values and advance “wokeism.” In response, they envision sweeping antitrust enforcement not on economic grounds, but for socio-political reasons.