On Oct 31, 2019, Rep Jennifer González-Colón (D-PR) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai about how the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau (PRTB) filed a waiver request to suspend the requirement that carriers use the National Verifier eligibility determination system for the Lifeline communication services until the new verification program proves operations. The FCC denied the waiver request, and Rep González-Colón, while ultimately supporting the purpose of the National Verifier, urged for reconsideration from the FCC and approve the waiver request. 

On Jan 3, 2020, Chairman Pai responded by saying that while the FCC did not receive a formal waiver request regarding the National Verifier launch in Puerto Rico, FCC staff worked closely with members of the PRTB and carriers in the territory to understand their concerns and answer their questions. Chairman Pai also described how FCC staff has made substantial progress on the issues raised by the PRTB and that "the National Verifier has improved automated eligibility verification for the Lifeline program in Puerto Rico." Chairman Pai concluded by saying that "During the soft launch, FCC staff will continue to closely monitor progress on these issues before announcing the date for the hard launch of the National Verifier in Puerto Rico."

The Internet has become an indispensable platform for innovation, job creation, and free expression. It is critical to our quality of life and our global competitiveness. To take advantage of the major innovations that will be introduced in the coming years, Americans will need to be connected. And that, of course, only serves to underscore why the Federal Communications Commission’s top priority must be to expand the deployment of high-speed broadband networks to all American. I’m pleased to report that our strategy of encouraging investment and innovation is working. After falling in 2015 and 2016, broadband investment in the United States increased in 2017 and 2018. And by almost every meaningful metric, America’s broadband networks have been expanding and improving. Since December 2017, the average fixed broadband download speed in the United States has increased by about 70%.

When we talk about the digital revolution, no area has greater potential for transformative change in the coming years than healthcare. At the FCC, we believe that broadband-enabled innovation represents a sea change in healthcare delivery—one that will broadly impact the field of healthcare. We want to encourage that innovation, which means ensuring that broadband is as ubiquitous as possible. We don’t want connectivity gaps that could hold back digital medicine. 

To be a part of the modern world, high-speed internet access is no longer optional. We’ve been saying this since at least the 1990s, yet Missouri continues to lag behind other states. Somehow we have entered the third decade of the 2000s with more than 1.2 million Missourians still lacking access to broadband internet. This is more than any other state except California and Texas. Missouri Farm Bureau made broadband access a top priority the past two state legislative sessions. We successfully advocated for an Office of Broadband Development, which was established within the Department of Economic Development in 2018. In 2020, we need to continue our investment by directing more money to this fund. The General Assembly should also extend the grant program’s authorization beyond its current August 2021 sunset. There is a lot more work to do before every rural Missourian has access to broadband.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai also recently named Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst to a working group as part of the FCC’s new Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force. This group of people with real-world experience in precision agriculture will advise the US Department of Agriculture and the FCC about the needs of tomorrow’s farmers.  These federal and state efforts are also being combined with private industry. If all of these groups pull in the same direction, we can close the digital divide that currently exists between rural and urban citizens. Of course, as new technologies come online, we will need to keep fighting to ensure rural areas are not left behind. In the 2020s, every American deserves the opportunity to access the modern economy and engage in modern culture. Through consistent effort, Missouri can move to the head of the pack and provide broadband to all corners of our state.

[Eric Bohl is the Director of Public Affairs and Advocacy for Missouri Farm Bureau]

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century—the digital century—it is time for the public interest to reassert itself. Thus far, the digital entrepreneurs have been making the rules about the digital economy. Early in this decade, We the People must reassert a visible hand on the tiller of digital activity. Will public policy intervene to protect personal privacy? Can our leaders act to preserve the idea of a competition-based economy? And while we catch up to decades of ignoring digital policy challenges, will we also look ahead to establish public interest expectations of the new developments such as artificial intelligence that digital technology opens?

In the 18th century, Adam Smith wrote of the “invisible hand” that governed markets. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the excesses of industrial capitalism resulted in the regulatory imposition of a “visible hand” acting in the public interest. The subsequent combination of capitalism and regulatory guardrails had the laudable effect of allowing the industrial economy to soar while protecting consumers and competition. At the beginning of the third decade of the digital century, it is time to introduce the visible hand of regulatory oversight into the information economy.

I cannot join my colleagues in voting to release these proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines for public comment and instead abstain. I come to this decision with some reluctance because I believe the 1984 Non-Horizontal Guidelines should be rescinded and rewritten and because I recognize the utility of public comments. I do not object to the public having an opportunity to comment on these proposed Guidelines, however my substantive concerns about the proposal in its current form rise to a level where I am unable to provide an endorsement of it. I have a number of concerns with the proposed Guidelines. My two primary objections are: (1) the effective safe harbor for firms with less than 20 percent market share, and (2) the departure from Section 7 of the Clayton Act’s mandate to stop anticompetitive mergers in their incipiency. I am also concerned that certain issues lack sufficient emphasis.

Attorney General William Barr declared that a deadly shooting in Dec at a naval air station in Pensacola (FL) was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman. AG Barr’s appeal was an escalation of an ongoing fight between the Justice Department and Apple pitting personal privacy against public safety. “This situation perfectly illustrates why it is critical that the public be able to get access to digital evidence,” Barr said, calling on Apple and other technology companies to find a solution and complaining that Apple has provided no “substantive assistance.” Apple has given investigators materials from the iCloud account of the gunman, Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a member of the Saudi air force training with the American military, who killed three sailors and wounded eight others on Dec 6. But the company has refused to help the FBI open the phones themselves, which would undermine its claims that its phones are secure. Justice Department officials said that they need access to Alshamrani’s phones to see messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp to determine whether he had discussed his plans with others at the base and whether he was acting alone or with help.