Upcoming policy issue

Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) hinted that she will introduce new legislation before the end of 2023 to address a significant funding gap for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The ACP, which offers free or discounted high-speed internet to qualifying households, is expected to run out of money in April of 2024.

In the year since the release of ChatGPT, generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been moving fast and breaking things, and copyright law is only beginning to catch up. Intellectual property law has shaped the internet for three decades.

Representatives Andrea Salinas (D-OR) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) introduced the bipartisan Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act, legislation that would expand access to remote mental health and substance use services in rural America, especially for individuals working in the farming, fishing, and forestry industries.

The US federal government has stopped warning some social networks about foreign disinformation campaigns on their platforms, reversing a years-long approach to preventing Russia and other actors from interfering in American politics less than a year before the US presidential elections. Meta no longer receives notifications of global influence campaigns from the Biden administration, halting a prolonged partnership between the federal government and the world’s largest social media company.

Roughly one in seven Americans have come to rely on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) since it was created almost exactly two years ago by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). As of November 1, 2023, the ACP had roughly $4.7 billion in remaining funds. If the current rate of program uptake continues, April 2024 will be the last full month of funding for the ACP. To avoid this problem, the White House recently asked Congress for an additional $6 billion for the ACP in order to extend the program, and give Congress and the Federal Communicat

On October 6, 2023, Rep Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to express concerns that she "misled the public and [was] not truthful" in Congressional testimony and has proposed broadband rate regulation. In her November 14 reply to Rep Walberg, Chairwoman Rosenworcel said, "I have no interest in pursuing regulation of broadband rates." She included a paragraph from the net neutrality/Title II proposal which reads:

On May 10, 2023, 19 House Members wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to express concerns about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Data Collection and asking the FCC to 1) Strengthen outreach to state and local governments on technical assistance to those interested in verifying availability and location data within their jurisdiction on a consistent basis; 2) Elevate public outreach and education opportunities for members of the public who would like to participate in the individual challenge process contained within the Broadband

The White House released a Presidential Memorandum (PM), Modernizing United States Spectrum Policy and Establishing a National Spectrum Strategy, and the National Spectrum Strategy (Strategy), on November 13, 2023.

The looming lapse of funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) threatens to widen the affordability and adoption gap just as the access gap is closing. The ACP, which currently provides a monthly broadband subsidy of $30 for roughly 22 million households, is projected to run out of funding by April 2024 without action from Congress.

In the wake of the Biden Administration’s request for a $6 billion extension of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), some in Congress question the program’s true impact on bringing broadband access to new users.