Level of Government

On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across the city of Los Angeles, California. The Eaton Fire burned through the eastern side of the city, burning through the Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre communities and causing 18 deaths, destroying 9,400 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres of land. In the west, the Palisades Fire led to twelve deaths, destroyed over 6,000 structures, and covered over 23,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu. The Hurst, Kenneth and Hughes fires also burned through parts of northwestern and central LA.

Texas' statewide broadband office announced grant applications are open for a new low Earth orbit satellite program that signals a shift in how the nation is developing its broadband infrastructure. Every state has receiving funding to expand broadband through the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, program, which was billed as a “bold” step toward universal high-speed internet access by 2

Erie Meyer is a former chief technologist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission who will be a senior fellow researching the intersection of tech, artificial intelligence, and regulation at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator and the Georgetown Tech and Society Initiative. Meyer, a co-founder of the U.S. Digital Service that’s better known today as DOGE, talks about how existing consumer protection laws already apply to AI, whether DOGE is making the government efficient, and how AI chatbots could violate financial regulations. 

Rep Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) reintroduced the Coastal Broadband Deployment Act, which would accelerate the deployment of broadband projects entirely within a floodplain.

Reps Scott Peters (D-CA) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) introduced the Proper Leadership to Align Networks for Broadband Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would require the Administration to develop and implement a national strategy to close the digital divide.  The PLAN for Broadband Act is based on a Government Accountability Office report that found federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping.

Reps Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Marc Veasey (D-TX) introduced the Stopping the Theft and Destruction of Broadband Act. This bill will impose penalties for those who damage or steal broadband lines. Specifically, the bill will amend section 1362 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the destruction of broadband internet access service.

We spend a lot of time talking about the future—of AI, of the nation’s economic competitiveness, of closing the digital divide. But too often, we’re forced to try and build that future on a foundation of regulations designed for a different world.

Cable operators still have a long road ahead in turning the corner on their subscriber slump, according to New Street Research, as the future of household growth looks bleak. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration’s crackdown on U.S. immigration calls for slower population growth.

TDS Telecommunications has broken ground on a new fiber-optic infrastructure project to connect more than 1,200 rural Grant County (WI) addresses.

Kinetic officially inaugurated Lake Sinclair and east Baldwin County’s (GA) high-speed fiber internet expansion, connecting over 700 households in the area. This $1.9 million transformative project represents a collaborative effort between state and local governments and Kinetic to enhance digital connectivity and bridge the digital divide in the region. The Baldwin County project has been generously funded through a combination of more than $920,000 from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund, and a county match of $151,000.