Level of Government

Ahead of a recent vote in Congress on a child safety bill, a powerful tech lobby representing Google, Meta and other major tech firms sent a forceful warning to lawmakers. The Kids Online Safety Act was “bad on policy and bad on the law,” the lobby, NetChoice, said in a statement, adding, “Courts across the country repeatedly halted these types of provisions.” The child safety bill, which would require social media platforms and other sites to limit features that can promote cyberbullying, har

Now that Broadband Offices have started the process of soliciting Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant applications, I thought I’d discuss a topic that anybody who wins a BEAD grant is going to care about—how a Broadband Office will reimburse grant winners for making expenditures. You might think this is straightforward, but unfortunately it is not. Grant offices are taking a wide variety of approaches to how they reimburse internet service providers (ISPs) for grant expenditures. Why does the method of payment matter? It probably doesn’t to giant ISPs.

The Federal Communications Commission concluded in 2009 that AM radio was dying: Listeners under 35 were “almost non-existent.” Responding to lagging consumer interest, vehicle manufacturers began leaving AM tuners out of cars—especially in electric vehicles, where the tuners are subject to electromagnetic interference. So why, weeks ago, did the House Commerce Committee overwhelmingly pass a measure requiring manufacturers to include AM radios in all new vehicles?

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) sees the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program as Virginia’s opportunity to finish the job of extending broadband access and also make long-term, transformational investments into broadband affordability and adoption. With the $1.48 billion in BEAD funds for Virginia, DHCD is finalizing plans to extend broadband infrastructure to the remaining unserved locations without a funded solution for connectivity and designing programs to meaningfully address broadband affordability and adoption.

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a means-tested federal program launched in January 2022 to support broadband connectivity among low-income households in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The expiration of the ACP benefit, the largest ever consumer support program for telecommunication services in U.S. history, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy mechanisms exist to promote equitable access to broadband.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed revised spectrum sharing rules for non-geostationary orbit, fixed-satellite service (NGSO FSS) systems. This proposal would seek to clarify certain methodology details from the 2023 Report and Order that previously updated the FCC’s rules governing coordination and protection requirements among NGSO FSS systems approved through different processing rounds.

In 2021, Congress enacted the Digital Equity Act (DEA) as part of the massive Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This marked the first time that federal lawmakers had dedicated funding specifically for digital equity programming, providing money for state broadband offices to analyze the digital equity landscape in their states and develop plans to reduce the barriers to accessing such critical service. For the first time, all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico created digital equity plans under the planning grant program.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau announce that comments in response to their September 2024 Public Notice are due no later than November 4, 2024, and reply comments are due no later than November 18, 2024. On September 11, 2024, the FCC released a Public Notice inviting supplemental comment to refresh and expand upon the record regarding the annual reporting and certification requirements for providers of incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS).

Minnesota is one step closer to being awarded federal funds for improving broadband infrastructure around the state. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) held a short press conference, on Sept. 26, to announce that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has approved Minnesota’s plan for broadband infrastructure deployment. In June 2023, the U.S. Commerce Department awarded $651,839,368 in federal funding to Minnesota.

You've probably heard of Project 2025—the not-so-secret plan the Heritage Foundation cooked up for the next Republican administration. Project 2025’s contents are so noxious, unpopular and anti-democratic that even Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from them—though at least 140 former Trump officials contributed to the plan. What you might not know is that just one of Project 2025’s authors currently works for the federal government: Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, the agency's senior Republican.