Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

For over 35 years, the Center for Changing Lives (CCL) has worked to connect Chicagoans to financial services that will, well, change their lives. CCL operates in four main categories of work: 1) U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counseling and financial coaching, 2) employment coaching and digital literacy, 3) resource development coaching, and 4) small business coaching.

Over Valentine's Day weekend 2025, parts of Appalachia, many still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helene just 5 months earlier, were battered by another round of heavy rain and flooding.

As a Marjorie and Charles Benton Opportunity Fund Fellow, I have been reviewing state digital equity plans, 5-Year Action Plans, Initial Proposals, and Final Proposals with the goal of understanding how states are working with Tribes on addressing broadband needs. A wise Oneida advisor of mine once shared that in order to properly engage with Indigenous communities, you must practice the three Rs: respect, relationship, and reciprocity. When it comes to the work on Tribal broadband in the U.S., these three essential practices can mean the success or failure of the landmark investm

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Board Chairman and Trustee Austin Hirsch announced that longtime Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss will transition to Benton Senior Fellow and will be succeeded by the Institute’s current Vice President of Programs, Dr. Revati Prasad. Furniss will continue to manage the Institute’s programming in Illinois and advise Dr. Prasad for the rest of 2025. Dr. Prasad will assume leadership of the Benton Institute beginning May 1, 2025.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Broadband Policy and Development (BPD) Office was created in 2023 with a commitment to addressing the internet infrastructure challenges in CNMI. Under this commitment, the CNMI BPD Office assumed the responsibility of spearheading CNMI's efforts to secure federal support, like the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Digital Equity Capacity Grant, and coordinate the effective utilization of broadband funding for residents.

On March 4, the House of Representatives' Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), held a full committee markup to consider twelve bills in total––the committee's first legislative markup of the 119th Congress. "This Committee has a rich, bipartisan history, which we will continue in that spirit with the bills we are considering today," said Rep Guthrie in his opening remarks.

On March 5, 2025, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chairman of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment (SPEED) for BEAD Act (H.R. 1870), legislation that would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to make changes to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Chairman Hudson was joined by 14 Republican cosponsors, including many (though not all) of the Republicans on his subcommittee.

In the final days of the 118th Congress, two new broadband bills were passed and eventually signed into law by then-President Joe Biden. Here's a quick look at the E-BRIDGE Act and the EXPLORE Act. The new laws demonstrate how Congress understands how important broadband is to economic development and that broadband is needed everywhere—even the places we go to 'get away from it all.' 

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee met on March 5 in a hearing titled "Fixing Biden’s Broadband Blunder." Republicans on the panel seem most focused on concerns raised by states and broadband providers about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BEAD Program is distributing $42.45 billion to states to provide grants for last-mile deployment in unserved and underserved areas.

On March 5, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing titled “Fixing Biden’s Broadband Blunders.” This title, chosen by wordsmiths in the Republican majority, hints at the policy direction the current Congress and Administration might take: undermining the progress the U.S. is making towards universal connectivity.