Level of Government

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Congress should fund the $8.1 billion Universal Service Fund through annual appropriations. “I do think that the time has come for Congress to shift this to a general appropriation,” said Pai, FCC chairman from 2017 to 2021. “[If USF were funded by appropriation] we wouldn’t have this situation now where we’re essentially getting more and more money from a declining base of contributors.”

Donald Trump has chosen former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to run the Justice Department, announcing his pick hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration. Bondi, a 59-year-old Republican who worked for years as a prosecutor, is a more conventional pick than Gaetz. She has had a close relationship with Trump for years and served on his legal team during his first impeachment.

Otis, Massachusetts, isn’t the sort of place you expect to spend a lot of time online. For Kirsten Paulson, who lives part time in Otis, that’s all a selling point. Another major one: Her internet service is better here than at her home outside Washington (DC). That’s because the town of 1,500 people built its own network to fill in the gaps left by private providers, which don’t offer high-speed internet in Otis.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is expected to soon begin distributing $1.25 billion in grants to nonprofits under the “Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program” (Program) “to support efforts to achieve digital equity, promote digital inclusion activities, and spur greater adoption of broadband among Covered Populations.” The Program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) establishes that applicants must use the funding to serve members of “Covered Populations,” defined to include “individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” This

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Vermont, allowing the state to request access to more than $5 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  Vermont will use the $5,299,150 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:  

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award applications from Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, allowing them to request access to more than $100 million to implement their Digital Equity Plans. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The states can request access to:

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted final rules for cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology. These rules will improve transportation safety and permit more efficient mobility as this advanced communications technology is integrated into vehicles and infrastructure.

Fiber deployment has significant incremental economic benefits even in the presence of other high-speed broadband technologies. The report also argues that because private actors will not capture all the benefits of fiber deployment the marketplace will not deploy enough fiber on its own. Based on these findings we suggest a few policy takeaways:

At first, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” looks like the most Silicon Valley-style project one could imagine. But now that they’ve laid out their plans for the “department” (actually an advisory commission outside government) in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, concern is bubbling up—even in the tech world—that the project might suffer from a couple other very Silicon Valley qualities: ego and overpromising. It’s not clear to many experts that the pair’s plans, as detailed as they s

The Federal Communications Commission voted to launch a major, comprehensive review and update of licensing rules for submarine cables that transmit information between continents and fuel economic activity.