Senator Luján (D-NM) Leads Colleagues in Urging the FCC to Combat Digital Discrimination

We write concerning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) “Prevention and Elimination of Digital Discrimination” (Docket/RM 22-69). We urge you to take swift action to adopt final rules to facilitate equal access to broadband internet.  Congress intended Section 60506 to require internet service providers to end discrimination resulting from programs and policies that perpetuate systemic barriers for people of color and other underserved groups. The Senate drafted, negotiated, and passed Section 60506 of H.R. 3684 with full awareness of Section 104 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 151). Existing law already required the Commission “to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges”. Section 60506 does not reference 47 U.S.C. 151, nor does Section 60506 amend the Communications Act, as AT&T notes. As such, Congress recognized that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 previously addressed intentional discrimination. Therefore, Congress passed Section 60506 to go beyond discriminatory intent and target disparate impacts of digital discrimination. To find otherwise would be to conclude that Congress engaged in redundant lawmaking.