House Democrats to Spotlight Net Neutrality, Broadband Access

“We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the likely next chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Democrats also intend to aggressively oversee the [Federal Communications Commission] through “regular oversight hearings with all commissioners,” he added. “First of all, we want to see the FCC in front of us more, and then there’s a whole range of issues that obviously we’re going to be interested in discussing,” Rep. Michael Doyle (D-Pa.), who’s in line to become chairman of the Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. 

A measure to expand broadband infrastructure would give Democrats their best chance for a bipartisan legislative win. Republicans and Democrats alike have backed the idea of expanding broadband access to rural and underserved areas. Democratic leaders hope to work with Trump and congressional Republicans on a broader infrastructure plan that is likely to include broadband provisions. Democrats and Republicans agree on some broadband infrastructure proposals, including “dig once,” which would require installing conduits that could house fiber optic cables during the construction of federally funded road projects, said Gigi Sohn, a former FCC official. Pallone introduced an infrastructure bill in 2017 that would authorize $40 billion to improve broadband infrastructure to expand high-speed internet access in the U.S. Democrats and Republicans could struggle to reach an agreement on new federal funding for broadband infrastructure, said Blair Levin, another former FCC official. Rural broadband investment is also a priority of some Republican senators, including Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who’s likely to take over as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee in the next Congress.