The Idaho Commission for Libraries, public libraries and partners, and the people of Idaho are once again caught in the culture war’s crosshairs. There’s been a last-minute effort by some members of the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee to eliminate the $6.3 million that has been appropriated by Congress to implement the Digital Access for All Idahoans Plan. Implementation of the plan has already begun as spending authority for the first year at $2.5 million was provided last legislative session. The ICfL staff have spent hundreds of hours helping develop the plan (read the plan or the plan summary), attend focus groups held around the state, and begin the implementation phase (funding became available in November 2024 for this and 80 percent is earmarked for subgrant projects). The arguments from legislators against funding it were that the source of funding is the Digital Equity Act passed by Congress and that one of the eight covered populations that each state is required to address includes individuals with a language barrier, including English learners. Some argued that this was a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative while others countered that providing equal access to resources is a long-standing value of libraries and Americans.  

On March 4, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar wrote to Reps Craig Goldman (R-TX) and August Pfluger (R-TX) expressing his desire to quickly put Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment funds to work and return unallocated funds to the US Treasury. "As a passionate advocate for conservative financial management, I am committed to responsibly using taxpayer dollars and returning any unallocated funds back to the U.S. Treasury. As I mentioned in a previous letter to Senator Cruz, the federal government should consider reforms that remove unnecessary red tape and social initiatives from the BEAD program. Doing so will enhance our ability to quickly deliver on the promise of broadband for all Texans while ensuring that any remaining funds can only be invested in complementary, common-sense, non-deployment initiatives such as workforce development, small business growth, education, and healthcare improvements that will enhance quality of life and drive economic growth."

Under the Biden Administration, the Federal Communications Commission expanded the E-Rate broadband subsidy program to provide free Wi-Fi on school buses and Wi-Fi hotspot devices for off-campus use by school-age children, despite lacking congressional authorization. This expansion wastes taxpayer money and encroaches on parental authority over children’s screen use and should be ended. This expansion was not the only waste; the E-Rate program has provided excessive subsidies to preschools, all of which raises serious concerns about the program’s integrity and susceptibility to waste, fraud, and abuse. Policymakers need to overturn the previous Administration’s program expansions and audit and reform the program in its entirety.

Across U.S. politics, it’s become fashionable to blame nearly all the internet’s ills on one law I co-wrote: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Everyone from President Donald Trump to some of my Democratic colleagues argue that Section 230 has let major tech platforms moderate too much or too little. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, has already written about his plans to reinterpret the law himself. Many of these claims give Section 230 too much credit. While it’s a cornerstone of internet speech, it’s a lesser support compared to the First Amendment, as well as Americans’ own choices in what they want to see online. But I’m convinced the law is just as necessary today as when I co-wrote it with Rep. Chris Cox in 1996. Critics of Section 230 often charge that the internet has fundamentally changed in the past three decades. Yet the bill’s 26 key words were written to address the same challenges we face today: keeping kids safe online, leveling the playing field between entrenched corporate interests and small innovators, and ensuring that individuals—not the government—control what we see online.

[Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) has served as a Senator from Oregon since 1996. He is the author of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.]