Public Notice

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced the applications filed for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Reimbursement Program received 181 applications and, upon initial review by the Reimbursement Program Fund Administrator, the gross cost estimate demand for Reimbursement Program support contained in the applications initially found eligible and acceptable for filing is nearly $5.6 billion.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the appointment of eight Tribal members to the FCC’s Native Nations Communications Task Force. In addition to filling seven current vacancies, the appointment of eight new Tribal members raises the total number of Tribal Task Force members from 25 to 26. The Task Force’s mission is to provide guidance, expertise, and recommendations to specific requests from the FCC on a range of communications issues that directly or indirectly affect Tribal governments and their people.

The Federal Communications Commission is ready to authorize more than $1.2 billion through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to fund new broadband deployments in 32 states. In the largest funding round to date, 23 broadband providers will bring broadband service to over 1 million locations. The FCC also has created the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, a new effort to monitor and ensure compliance for universal service high-cost programs including the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund including increasing :

The Federal Communications Commission adopted two orders resolving pending issues associated with white space devices and the white spaces databases. The actions will provide additional certainty to white space device users, manufacturers, and database administrators to enable unlicensed white space devices to operate efficiently and protect other spectrum users, in particular wireless microphone users.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau approved the sixth and final group of funding commitments under Round 2 of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Telehealth Program and committed $47.89 million in funding to 100 health care providers across the nation. The funding commitments will provide critical support to health care providers on the front lines in the fight against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  With this action, 447 awardees have received funding commitments totaling $256,378,567 and all funding in the program has been committed.

Resolved, That the House of Representatives finds that—

In this Order, the Federal Communications Commission adopts final rules for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which builds upon the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB Program), to offer eligible low-income households discounts off the cost of broadband service and connected devices.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB)—in conjunction with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force (RBATF) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA)—authorizes Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) support for 2,521 winning bids. The FCC reviewed the long-form application information, including the letter(s) of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter(s) from the long-form applicant’s legal counsel.

The Federal Communications Commission alongside the Department of Labor, Department of Education, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the members of a cross-agency working group that will collaborate to identify the current and future needs of the telecommunications industry workforce, including the safety of that workforce.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has appointed the individuals listed here to serve as members of the three working groups of the Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC). The working groups include members of the CEDC, additional working group members, and independent subject matter experts.