Government & Communications

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy Rodgers (R-WA), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chair Bob Latta (R-OH), Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Chair Bill Johnson (R-OH), and Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Jeff Duncan (R-SC) wrote to the heads of the Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Environmen

As state broadband offices enter the planning phase of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, industry leaders say that community engagement is key to ensuring affordability and long-term sustainability.

Roger Timmerman, CEO of Utopia Fiber, called out the "army" of lobbyists that are keeping broadband speed standards down in the US. "The problem is we've got an $8 million a week lobbying effort from big telecom, and so anytime the federal government – or even now at the state level – when any of them try to raise that bar for the standard of what consumers need for broadband, there's an army of lobbying that goes up and opposes that.

As the 2022 elections essentially came to a close on December 6, 2022, then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised that the House of Representatives—under a new, Republican majority—would "conduct rigorous oversight of the federal government" in the 118th Congress.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel sent letters to the nation’s 9 largest providers of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) seeking information on how these alerts can start to support more languages beyond English and Spanish. WEA messages provide geographically targeted, text-like messages to mobile devices alerting consumers of imminent threats to safety in their area. Since the program became operational in 2012, it has been used more than 70,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, or other critical situations.

The Federal Communications Commission is contracting communications firm Porter Novelli Public Services (PNPS) to carry out a "consumer education plan" in order to broaden public awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The FCC detailed its plans to work with PNPS in a contract opportunity posted on Sam.gov, with an award date of February 1, 2023.

On February 3, 2023, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to members of Congress regarding the broadband data collection process. In December 2022, the lawmakers wrote to Rosenworcel with complaints from "constituents, state and local governments, and service providers alike of continuing concerns about the accuracy of the FCC's preliminary national broadband map. The lawmakers included recommendations for accountability measures moving forward.

The Federal Communications Commission recently opened a docket, at the prompting of federal legislation, that asks for examples of digital discrimination. The big cable companies and telecoms are all going to swear they don’t discriminate against anybody for any reason, and every argument they make will be pure bosh. If people decide to respond to this FCC docket, we’ll see more evidence of discrimination based on income. We might even get some smoking gun evidence that some of the discrimination comes from corporate bias based on race and other factors.

Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) reintroduced their "Protecting Community Television Act" (S 340 and HB 907) This legislation would undo a Trump-era rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission and ensure that public, educational, and government (PEG) channels have the resources they need to keep producing content for their viewers.

At Senator John Fetterman’s (D-PA) desk in the Senate chamber, there is a newly installed monitor that rises or lowers, depending on whether he sits or stands, and provides closed captioning so he can follow the proceedings. At the center dais, a custom desk stand has been built to accommodate the same technology for when he takes his shifts presiding over the Senate. The sergeant-at-arms has arranged for live audio-to-text transcription for the committees on which Sen. Fetterman serves, and plans to expand the service to all Senate hearings.