Press Release

The White House is releasing a five-year plan to strengthen education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), developed by the National Science and Technology Council Committee on STEM Education and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The plan seeks to ensure that all Americans have access to quality STEM education and safeguard America’s place as the global leader in STEM innovation and employment.

More than 19 million people living in rural America do not have access to broadband, a service as necessary as electricity in today’s digital economy. Microsoft President Brad Smith reiterated his call for a national strategy to close the rural broadband gap and highlighted that this is a problem the country can solve. The Microsoft Airband Initiative launched in July 2017 with the goal of working with partners to make broadband available to 2 million Americans in rural communities who lack access today and to help catalyze an ecosystem to connect millions more.

Botnets and automated, distributed attacks threaten our nation’s Internet infrastructure. Solving this and other cybersecurity challenges is a top priority for the Trump Administration. To address these threats, the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security have developed a road map that charts a path forward, setting out steps to stop the cyber threat to our internet infrastructure. It outlines a plan for coordination among government, civil society, technologists, academics, and industry sectors to develop a comprehensive strategy for fighting these threats.

As a critical step in delivering on President Donald Trump’s call for development of a national spectrum strategy, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has asked federal agencies to report their future spectrum needs over the next 15 years. The reports will help ensure the federal government is optimizing utilization of the nation’s spectrum resources and meeting the needs of spectrum users, including critical federal missions that serve the American public. Agencies must submit their initial reports by Feb 21, 2019 and provide final reports by April 23, 2019.

It's now been almost ten months since my colleague, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and I penned an op-ed in The Hill reaffirming the need to end states' diversion of critical 9-1-1 fees collected from consumers to non-9-1-1 functions.

The House has passed, by a voice vote,  the SMART (State of Modern Application, Research, and Trends) IoT (Internet of Things) Act (H.R. 6032). Authored by Consumer Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), the SMART IoT Act would direct the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a study on the state of the internet-connected devices industry. The report is to be delivered to Congress within one year. 

The legislation instructs the Sec of Commerce to 

(1) develop and conduct a survey of the internet-connected devices industry including:

We’re announcing the expansion of a new local section on Facebook called “Today In” and starting a test for local alerts from relevant government pages. Today In connects people to local news and information about their community. It is now available in over 400 cities in the US, and we have launched our first international test in Australia. In addition, we have started testing Today In in communities located in news deserts, places that have low supply of local news and community information, by supplementing with relevant content from surrounding areas.

Every four years, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) member states meet at a three-week conference, the Plenipotentiary (or the Plenipot), to set the priorities of the organization for the next period and elect its top five leadership positions. The 2018 Plenipot took place in Dubai, from the end of Oct to the middle of Nov. Here are some of the key issues that Public Knowledge followed in the Plenipot:

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) announced the promotion of Crystal Tully, who previously served as policy director and counsel for communications and technology, to deputy staff director of the full Commerce Committee. “As we head into the closing days of the current congress, I’ve asked Crystal to play a larger role in helping us finish strong and laying groundwork for the committee’s next chapter,” said Chairman Thune.

The American Cable Association filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission requesting that the agency require Sinclair Broadcast Group to file early renewal applications for four of its stations [WJLA (ABC, Washington, DC), WBFF (Fox, Baltimore, MD), WSET (ABC, Lynchburg, VA), and WTVZ (MyTVZ, Norfolk, VA)].