Pandemic Builds Momentum for Broadband Infrastructure Upgrade

The coronavirus pandemic is boosting momentum for major broadband legislation, highlighting the widespread lack of high-speed internet in US homes at a time when it has become more essential than ever. Leading lawmakers of both parties say the long-delayed issue of closing the so-called digital divide is gaining new prominence, as Washington weighs initiatives to help speed economic recovery and improve US competitiveness. “Having affordable broadband—it’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA). “Broadband infrastructure has to be one of the key elements to that, and this pandemic has brought that right to the forefront.”

Democratic lawmakers for their part worry that conservative Republican lawmakers will balk at spending more federal money on new broadband and other infrastructure initiatives, as they have in the past. It remains to be seen how much the pandemic will tip the political scales. “I know there is a great deal of interest among Republicans and Democrats in taking a small portion of the funds in the next phase” for broadband, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS). He added, “The president is talking about a Phase 4 [of legislation] and Republicans and Democrats are talking infrastructure as a part of that. I do not think it will be enacted without a broadband component.”