Level of Government

The internet was spewing racist and sexist attacks long before Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) began her presidential campaign, including when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sought the job. Since the last major election, however, it has become even more noxious—and more central to American politics. In 2008, then-Sen Obama (D-IL) Obama faced an ecosystem in which Facebook had millions of users, not billions, and the iPhone was just a year old. In 2016, Clinton’s campaign monitored a handful of social media platforms, not dozens.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced updated minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported services as required by the 2016 Lifeline Order. The 2016 Lifeline Order established minimum service standards for certain Lifeline-supported services and established annual increases in those standards either in the FCC’s rules or pursuant to calculations set out in the Order and the FCC’s rules.  Accordingly, the Bureau announced the newly calculated minimum service standard for fixed broadband data usage allowance, which is the same as the curren

A framework for Build America, Buy America (BABA) self-certification and compliance in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program:

We hear a lot of talk from the broadband industry about how there’s a labor shortage. But there’s not so much a labor shortage as there is “a shortage of good jobs,” according to Ceilidh Gao, senior research associate at Communication Workers of America (CWA). Wages “have gone down in recent decades” and the jobs are “less safe than they used to be,” she said.

Middle-mile may have become more important than ever in terms of fiber networks because all the last-mile networks that will be built for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program need to connect to something. But honing-in on a precise definition of middle-mile is a challenge even for industry insiders. Joe Pellegrini, president and COO with Great Plains Communications, said, “It’s an end-to-end system with real estate, points of presence….

Social media influencer and wedding dress designer Hayley Paige is set to testify at a Senate hearing about banning noncompete agreements, the latest example of how members of the Senate are using online influencers to push their policy initiatives and educate the public about their legislative efforts. Paige, who has over 1.1 million followers on Instagram, was forced to stop designing dresses after her former employer sued her under a noncompete agreement, which limits workers’ ability to continue to work in the same industry.

Reps Mike Carey (R-OH) and Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to renew the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—a federal program that helped low-income households afford access to high-speed internet.

Sens John Thune (R-SD), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced the Accelerating Broadband Permits Act, bipartisan legislation that would improve federal agencies’ review and processing of broadband permits and allow service to be more quickly deployed to unserved communities.

Republican or Democrat, one rare issue that can unite every American is the need to provide affordable internet connections to everyone. In today’s digital world, access to broadband internet means access to jobs, education, health care, and social opportunities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a reorganization that will streamline and bolster technology, cybersecurity, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and policy functions. This reorganization will clarify and consolidate these critical functions, as follows: