Apparently, a handful of Democratic Reps are shopping around a letter that echoes internet service provider lobbyist talking points, incorrectly claiming that the Save the Internet Act to restore network neutrality is dead and calling for the creation of a disingenuous “bipartisan working group,” modeled after the one created in the Senate by Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who are widely seen as enemies of the effort to restore net neutrality. The group is rumored to be led by Reps Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Scott Peters (D-CA) who together have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from big telecom companies. The letter has not yet been released, and many of the signers may not be aware of its true intent.

Pew Charitable Trusts, which has spent more than a year studying Americans’ access to broadband, will soon be launching an online explorer inventorying the data it’s collected — including information on gaps to coverage and the policies state governments are pursuing to fill them.  The explorer will be a searchable catalog of everything from current laws and policies, to information on funding and financing, and will likely launch sometime late this summer, said Kathryn de Wit, manager of the project. “What we know at this point is that different communities can be difficult to connect for different reasons,” said de Wit. “At this point, state policy sets the framework for deployment within states. The first step in looking at whether states are effectively closing the gap is looking at policy, and that’s what my team has spent a significant amount of their time on.” This major effort has included a review of “all broadband deployment laws, statutes, codes, policies, executive orders and administrative codes across all 50 states,” de Wit said. “It was not a small undertaking, but it was important for us to do this research,” she said. 

The United States 5G Leadership Act of 2019 legislation would establish US policy for the commercial deployment and security of fifth generation (5G) networks by creating the Supply Chain Security Trust Fund grant program. This program would help US communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. The bill:

• Establishes U.S. policy to promote the deployment of secure commercial 5G networks and the development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in the U.S.
• Establishes U.S. policy that American 5G networks should not include equipment or services provided by Huawei, ZTE, or their affiliates.
• Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to finalize its rulemaking that would prohibit the use of Universal Service Fund subsidies to buy equipment or services from providers who pose a national security risk. 
• Establishes the Supply Chain Security Trust Fund grant program to help U.S. communications providers remove Huawei equipment from their networks — makes available up to $700 million from future spectrum auctions for this purpose. 
• Requires a report on steps that the Federal government is taking to ensure the secure deployment and availability of 5G networks.
• Establishes an interagency program – led by the Department of Homeland Security – to share information regarding security, risks, and vulnerabilities with U.S. communications providers. 
• Prioritizes funding to enhance U.S. representation at international 5G standards setting bodies, such as the International Telecommunications Union.

Sponsors include: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman  Roger Wicker (R-MS), Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

It may have begun as a trade war, but the US conflict with China is increasingly becoming a technology war. President Trump’s decision to confront Beijing over policies that he says discriminate against foreign companies and distort global markets has become a battle for control of advanced communications and computing technologies. That evolution is taking the transpacific conflict into sensitive realms of national security and human rights, making a quick settlement an ever more distant outcome. It is also putting at risk a wide array of US-China technology cooperation, including easy access to visas for researchers and venture capital funds for U.S. start-ups — and threatening to boomerang on US companies that China might retaliate against.