Press Release

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) – led by Chairman L. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), and Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Task Force Co-Chairs, Reps Barbara Lee (D-CA) and GK Butterfield (D-NC) – issued the following joint statement in response to a new report prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which reveals Russia targeted African American voters in attempts to suppress the vote in the 2016 election:

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), author of the Children’s Television Act, led eight of this colleagues in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to maintain essential elements of the “Kid Vid” rules, which ensure access to children’s education programming on over-the-air broadcast television, in accordance with the Children’s Television Act. In the letter, the Sens highlight the need to preserve existing rules requiring broadcasters to air three hours of regularly scheduled educational children’s programming a week on their primary stations.

Today we mark a trifecta of governmental malfeasance: last year, the FCC’s majority ignored bipartisan public support for the net neutrality protections the Commission adopted in 2015; it displayed a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology, and it misinterpreted U.S. communications law. Last year, Benton promised that net neutrality was not dead and predicted wins at both ballot boxes and in the courts. In November, the American public overwhelmingly backed candidates that support net neutrality.

Gigi Sohn, a leading public advocate for the concept that broadband Internet should be open, affordable, and competitive, has joined the board of directors of the Electronic Fronteir Foundation. A lawyer and innovator who has both counseled and stood up to the Federal Communications Commission—albeit not always at the same time—Sohn has fearlessly worked for over 30 years to make US communications networks accessible to all consumers and protective of user privacy. 

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with Nexstar Media Group, one of the largest owners of television stations in the country, as part of its ongoing investigation into exchanges of competitively sensitive information in the broadcast television industry. The Department filed an amended complaint in the case United States v. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., et al., adding Nexstar Media Group Inc.

As a staunch supporter of limited government and free speech, I have regularly objected to government attempts to own and control the nation’s communications networks. I have been a staunch critic of government projects to build and operate broadband networks. Beyond flirting with a perverse form of socialism, municipalities’ overbuilding of private providers creates market inefficiencies, distorts competitive outcomes, encourages regulatory favoritism towards state-owned networks, and can be a waste of taxpayer money. Even in instances where municipal, or muni, broadband reaches unserved a

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering up to $600 million in loans and grants to help build broadband infrastructure in rural America. Telecommunications companies, rural electric cooperatives and utilities, internet service providers and municipalities may apply for funding through USDA’s new ReConnect Program to connect rural areas that currently have insufficient broadband service. Answering the Administration’s call to action for rural prosperity, Congress appropriated funds in the fiscal year 2018 budget for this broadband pilot program.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted its first Communications Marketplace Report, which provides a comprehensive evaluation of the state of the communications marketplace. As required by Title IV of RAY BAUM’S Act of 2018, the report consolidates several separate reports to address the state of the broader communications marketplace in one place. And as mandated by Congress, this report will be issued every two years.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking commencing the 2018 Quadrennial Review of the Commission’s media ownership rules.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a ruling rejecting requests to make it harder for text messaging providers to protect consumers from spam and scam robotexts. The FCC’s decision makes clear that wireless providers are authorized to continue their efforts to stop unwanted text messaging through robotext-blocking, anti-spoofing measures, and other anti-spam features.