Policymakers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai swung through Boise (ID) to meet with healthcare professionals at the Veterans Affairs hospital. Chairman Pai discussed “tele-healthcare” with VA officials on the tail end of his tour that touched 30 states. While his visit was not related to network neutrality, Chairman Pai said both were in line with his overall vision for how to connect America. “By the FCC’s standards, some 30 to 34 million Americans, disproportionately rural, don’t have high quality access to the internet, and that is a big problem,” Chairman Pai said.

Under a new reorganization plan from the Trump administration, federal agencies would have less than four years to digitize all their paper processes. The White House released its overarching plan to reorganize the federal government, and, as with most of the administration’s management plans, it emphasizes technology’s role in the future of government. The plan calls for digitizing all of the federal government’s recordkeeping by Dec. 31, 2022, at which time the National Archives and Records Administration would stop accepting paper records from agencies.

As long as Federal Communications Commission nominee Geoffrey Starks is able to supply his post-confirmation hearing paperwork quickly, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) wants to include Starks' nomination on a June 27 markup and then move it on the floor paired with the nomination of current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr for a second term. "I think the FCC [nominations] should move quickly," said Chairman Thune. Starks enjoyed a drama-free confirmation hearing June 20.

Federal Communications Commission nominee Geoffrey Starks got a thorough vetting by the Senate Commerce Committee June 20, including a charge from Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), who said the "hyperpartisanship of the last commission must come to an end" and called on Starks to "seek opportunities for common ground." Chairman Thune suggested the model for that was the current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his "spirit of openness, transparency and collaboration" that he encouraged Starks to embrace.

Benton Foundation Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss named Gigi Sohn Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate. Furniss said, “The Benton Foundation is honored to support the ongoing work of one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks.

When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com Inc more than two decades ago, he sought to keep the online bookstore away from the government’s reach. He has said he looked into placing its headquarters on an Indian reservation as a tax-saving strategy. That was then. Today, Amazon, whose revenues in 2017 topped $177 billion, has become deeply entwined with the federal government. Bezos has built one of the largest lobbying operations in Washington, bigger than those of powerhouses such as Exxon Mobile and Walmart.

Blackfoot, the owner and operator of the region’s largest multi-gigabit network, welcomed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to Montana. During Chairman Pai’s visit, Blackfoot CEO, Jason Williams led a tour of the company’s fiber construction, followed by a working session that was focused on delivering broadband access to rural communities across Blackfoot’s service areas. “Bridging the digital divide and expanding Internet access to all corners of the country is my top priority at the FCC,” said Chairman Pai.

A Q&A with John Stankey, the new AT&T executive in charge of new Time Warner properties. 

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) suffers from significant failures of design and execution. Due to these failures, I expect the BDAC and the FCC will adopt a framework in which industry gets all the benefits with no obligations, and municipalities will be forced to bear all the costs and receive no guaranteed benefits.