Federal

Washington is getting ready to run a wild experiment, testing what happens when one of Silicon Valley’s signature “disruptors” meets the world’s biggest bureaucracy. Elon Musk showed up in person in the capita the day after Donald Trump named him to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency”—an initiative to slash government waste, fraud, and inefficiency, wherever the tech mogul might decide he finds it. Musk will co-lead the project with Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech investor and MAGA cheerleader who ran against Trump in the GOP primary. Trump unveiled the idea with his usual lavish prom

A legal battle over the Biden administration’s influence on social media companies looks set to spill into the next Trump administration—and no one knows quite how that will play out. A district judge allowed the case known as Missouri v. Biden to resume even as the Biden administration winds down. The Supreme Court vacated his previous ruling in the case in June, but the new one means the plaintiffs can now pursue additional discovery.

The Universal Service Fund (USF) has been stuck in legislative limbo as the government wrestles with how to improve the subsidy program. Experts think USF reform could see momentum in Trump’s second term, but how that will pan out is a trickier question to answer. The USF, which supports broadband access and affordability in rural and low-income communities, is made up of four [sic] smaller programs: Connect America Fund, Lifeline, E-Rate and Rural Health Care. One glaring problem with the current USF framework is the shrinking contribution base.

The Oregon Broadband Office is excited to announce it has issued Notices of Intent to Award $132,917,084 through the Office’s Broadband Deployment Program (BDP), part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

Superior Court Judge Brian Stern issued a decision dismissing Cox Communication’s lawsuit against Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Stern says this is a matter that should be pursued in federal court.

The future of the $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund (USF), which supports broadband access in schools, libraries, and rural communities, hangs in the balance as three critical court cases move forward. In a rare twist, two cases saw oral arguments on the same day, adding a sense of urgency to the outcomes. These decisions could redefine affordable internet connectivity for students, families, and communities nationwide. We summarize each case and outline the stakes for the E-rate and other USF programs. As we await the courts’ decisions, SHLB is not just observing from the sidelines.

On August 22, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened significant fines for eleven internet service providers (ISPs) that failed to participate in the FCC broadband data collection and mapping process. These ISPs have been issued several warnings from the FCC to begin complying with the broadband mapping rules.

President-elect Donald Trump picked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech company founder Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, to lead an effort to cut spending, eliminate regulations and restructure federal agencies. Musk and Ramaswamy will lead what the president-elect called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE . The group’s mandate is to streamline government bureaucracy, the president-elect said.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) more than $72 million from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption in Native Hawaiian households. The nearly $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All Initiative.

A key challenge to achieving universal broadband adoption in Alabama is that low-income households struggle to afford broadband services and devices with adequate technical support. Among Alabama residents who do not have internet service at home, 42.6 percent report that a primary reason they do not pay for broadband at home is an inability to afford service.