Policymakers

This markup comes at the end of a tremendously productive Congressional session. Over the last two years, we’ve turned some of the biggest legislative solutions into the law of the land thanks to the hard work of Committee members and staff, and it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Chairman. The Committee has reported out 76 bills, of which 23 have become law. We passed the most significant climate law in our nation’s history, empowered Medicare to negotiate the cost of lifesaving prescription drugs for seniors, made historic investments to rebuild our nation’s drinking water inf

Nearly two years have come and gone without a fifth commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency tasked to regulate the corporate behemoths that control how Americans gather, receive, and transmit information. Almost a year into President Biden’s first term, the White House nominated Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], a public-interest advocate who served as a top counselor to Obama FCC chair Tom Wheeler.

The push to tank [Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate] Gigi Sohn’s nomination for the Federal Communications Commission has been bolstered by conservative groups taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads. In the past year, two conservative nonprofits — the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) and the Center for a Free Economy (CFE) — have placed at least $246,000 in Facebook ads opposing Sohn, according to a review of digital ads archives.

The Federal Communications Commission is the lead U.S.

Lilian Coral, an experienced public interest and technology leader, has joined New America as Senior Director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) and Head of New America’s Technology and Democracy Programs. Coral will oversee New America’s work on a broad range of issues at the intersection of technology and democracy at a time when digital equity, privacy concerns, online free expression, and other key tech policy issues are at the forefront of US public debate. Coral served most recently as Director of National Strategy and Tech Innovation at the John S. & James L.

The 117th Congress is nearing its end. There are still several broadband policy issues and related matters for Congress to sort out. Meanwhile, the current Congress has few working days left in 2022—and still needs to pass a budget for 2023—and it's unclear how much legislation will reach President Biden's desk when Republicans gain the House majority in January. Here are two policy matters to watch for the remaining days of this Congress:

The Federal Communications Commission appointed Burt Cohen, Staff Attorney and Broadband Coordinator for the State of Connecticut, Office of Consumer Counsel, to serve as the State Consumer Advocate representative on the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. This appointment fills the position recently vacated by the William “Bill” Vallee of the Connecticut State Office of Consumer Counsel. 

A new approach to tech policy is taking root in the GOP, and it’s not what you might expect from the party of Alan Greenspan and Friedrich Hayek. Led by a handful of ambitious, policy-minded senators, a group of conservatives is embracing the idea of subsidizing the tech industry and advanced manufacturing—with an eye toward building a competitive edge over China, and revitalizing the hollowed-out industrial centers that have given the party its Trump-era populist verve.

Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-VA) died Nov 28, just weeks after winning reelection to Congress, his office announced. He was 61. Rep. McEachin had represented Virginia’s 4th District, which stretches from Richmond to the North Carolina line, since 2017. Before that, he had served nine years as a state senator and eight as a delegate. A minister and lawyer, Rep. McEachin was the Democratic nominee for state attorney general in 2001, losing to Republican Jerry Kilgore. State Sen. L.

The Commerce Department, under Secretary Gina Raimondo’s leadership, is now poised to begin distributing nearly $100 billion — roughly 10 times the department’s annual budget — to build up the U.S. chip industry and expand broadband access throughout the country. How Raimondo handles that task will have big implications for the United States economy going forward.