House Democratic leaders are set to roll out infrastructure legislation following the Martin Luther King Jr. Day recess. The legislation will likely feature provisions aimed at closing the digital divide, putting the issue of broadband internet access front and center ahead of the 2020 elections. The all-Democrat Rural Broadband Task Force, formed in 2019 and led by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), has been working closely with the Speaker’s office and the Energy and Commerce Committee on the development of the task force’s bill and discussing its possible inclusion, in whole or in part, in a broader infrastructure package. There is wide agreement across the Democratic Caucus that significant investment in broadband is necessary so that all Americans can affordably access high-speed internet, which is a necessity in the 21st century information economy.

House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) is also plugged into the multi-committee process behind developing this infrastructure package and “looks forward to unveiling the proposal soon,” a spokesman confirmed. Chairman Pallone in May 2019 unveiled his own infrastructure bill, called the LIFT America Act, H.R. 2741, which would allocate $40 billion in broadband investment, but it was never marked up. The Trump administration so far has “not come on board,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “However, we’ve decided that now we’ll just have to go forward.”

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested $5.7 million in a high-speed broadband infrastructure project that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity in parts of three Nebraska counties. The investment is expected to connect 489 rural households, 24 farms and eight businesses to high-speed broadband internet in unserved portions of Madison, Wayne and Pierce counties. Eastern Nebraska Telephone Company will use a $5.7 million ReConnect Program grant to construct 221 miles of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure. The company will use matching funds of $1.9 million to complete the project, for a total project cost of $7.6 million. Eastern is a certificated local exchange carrier providing broadband service to its eight exchanges in eastern Nebraska. The company, headquartered in Blair (NE), provides long-distance and wireline voice to all its exchange areas and high-speed broadband service to select areas.

Frontier provided the Federal Communications Commission notice that, based on its current year-end data, it met or exceeded the FCC Connect America Fund Phase II program’s December 31, 2019 interim broadband deployment milestone in 16 states, but, based on preliminary year-end data, it may not have reached the CAF Phase II 80 percent interim deployment milestone in 13 states. More information by March 1, 2020.

The major broadband associations have gotten to together to add heft to the bone they have to pick with the Federal Communications Commission over the way it has structured its new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidy process, one they warn could discourage participation and drain $1 billion from broadband buildouts to banks and other lending institutions. The FCC plans to vote on final rules for the $20.4 billion fund Jan. 30.

The NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, INCOMPAS, USTelecom, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, WTA – Advocates for Rural Broadband, and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association sent a letter to the FCC. They said they have a problem with the requirement that those bidding for the subsidies "maintain letters of credit [LOC] for multiple years of service." The FCC is looking to safeguard the funds by protecting against defaults, which the associations say they understand. They have individually raised that concern, and are now doing it collectively. "In light of the existing authority that the Commission has to withhold funds from those who fail to meet their deployment commitments along with a range of other enforcement tools at its disposal, the Commission can achieve our shared goal of preserving and protecting the Fund without imposing the unreasonable, unsustainable, and ultimately unworkable multi-year LOC requirements currently in the draft order," they said. They warned that if the shadow of those LOCs remain unaltered by the future, "many" companies would be barred from bidding to build out rural broadband, which is an FCC priority, and those that do bid would not be able to bid on as many locations as they otherwise could because of the cost of the credit. "[T]he LOC requirements conservatively will result in over $1 billion in RDOF support (6-7 percent of the total Phase I funding) going to banks and other financial intermediaries rather than to building broadband in rural communities," they warned.  

The editorial board of the New York Times interviewed former Vice President Joe Biden. 

Asked, "Mr. Vice President, in October, your campaign sent a letter to Facebook regarding an ad that falsely claimed that you blackmailed Ukrainian officials to not investigate your son. I’m curious, did that experience, dealing with Facebook and their power, did that change the way that you see the power of tech platforms right now?"

Biden responded, "I've never been a fan of Facebook...[F]rom my perspective, I’ve been in the view that not only should we be worrying about the concentration of power, we should be worried about the lack of privacy and them being exempt, which you’re not exempt. [The Times] can’t write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued. But he can. The idea that it’s a tech company is that Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one. For Zuckerberg and other platforms....It should be revoked because it is not merely an internet company. It is propagating falsehoods they know to be false, and we should be setting standards not unlike the Europeans are doing relative to privacy. You guys still have editors. I’m sitting with them. Not a joke. There is no editorial impact at all on Facebook. None. None whatsoever. It’s irresponsible. It’s totally irresponsible."

On Wednesday, January 15, the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on diversity in the media market. In announcing the hearing, Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) said, "Since the Federal Communications Commission isn’t doing enough to advance media diversity, Congress must." So what's on the agenda? 

A Massachusetts judge has ordered Facebook to turn over data about thousands of apps that may have mishandled its users’ personal information, rejecting the tech company’s earlier attempts to withhold the key details from state investigators. The decision amounted to a significant victory for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey who said that Facebook users — and local watchdogs — “have a right to know” whether their privacy has been violated. Massachusetts revealed it was probing Facebook over its data-collection practices in Sept, an investigation that stemmed from the company’s entanglement with Cambridge Analytica. The court dispute centered on Facebook’s admission in 2019 that it had suspended “tens of thousands” of apps for possible privacy violations. Facebook discovered the app issues as a result of an internal audit of its third-party developers, but it declined to share — with the public or with Massachusetts officials — exactly who it had suspended or many details about their potential wrongdoings. AG Healey and her aides argued the data was critical, potentially showing that thousands of apps, some with large numbers of users, presented an elevated risk of privacy violations or behaved in a way that “may suggest data misuse,” her office said at the time. Facebook, however, fought to keep the evidence to itself, arguing it should be shielded from investigators. After months of wrangling, the attorney general’s office took the issue before a Suffolk Superior Court judge, who ruled Jan 17 that Facebook must surrender the information. Facebook now has 90 days to comply with the state’s request.