Upcoming policy issue

As the past few years have made clear, access to high-speed broadband is critical to daily life. While the biggest broadband provisions of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) focused on building physical broadband networks, legislators clearly understood all the infrastructure in the world would be meaningless if those struggling financially couldn’t afford connectivity.

Due to their close ties to the Chinese government, Huawei and ZTE equipment presents significant risks to U.S. national security and domestic communications networks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already prohibited the purchase of Huawei and ZTE products and banned the use of FCC funds to expand or maintain networks containing any Huawei or ZTE equipment, and ordered telecommunications carriers to tear out equipment made by Huawei and ZTE. However, this equipment is still embedded throughout U.S. networks.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is scheduled to vote Nov 15 on an order on preventing digital discrimination, but a new round of industry filings, plus commentary from FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, suggests there may be legal challenges ahead to the new rules. According to filings with the FCC, industry groups and service providers are taking issue with the agency’s definition of digital discrimination, along with other aspects of the draft order.

Congressman Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) and Representative Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the bipartisan Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) Online Act to ensure that products that are sold online list their country of origin to protect American consumer’s right to know where the products they buy are made and promote American-made goods. Unlike products that are purchased in-person, goods that are sold online are not required to list their country of origin.

Internet service providers and their lobby groups are fighting the Federal Communications Commission's plan to prohibit discrimination in access to broadband services.

As Members of the New York delegation, we are writing to urge you to allocate $7 billion for the critical Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) via a manager amendment when the fiscal year 2024 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill is brought to the House floor or through any emergency supplemental appropriations package taken up by Congress.

Congress established the Affordable Connectivity Program in November 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, providing $14.2 billion to expand an emergency broadband program that began in 2021. But those funds are running out. On Oct.

The Biden administration is fighting a two-front war in its campaign to re-regulate internet service providers (ISPs), fronts that opponents fear could include price regulation as ammunition. The Federal Communications Commission's Democratic majority voted on October 19, 2023 to propose reclassifying internet access as a Title II telecommunications service subject to some common-carrier regulations and to restore net neutrality rules.

On November 11 each year, we are asked to recognize that our military and veteran families answer our Nation’s call to duty—and we recommit to doing right by their service and sacrifice. This year that recommitment must include ensuring that our veterans don't fall onto the wrong side of the digital divide. This year, our recommitment to veterans must include a recommitment to the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

In a comment submitted to the US Copyright Office, the Federal Trade Commission identified several issues raised by the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that implicate competition and consumer protection policy, noting the FTC’s role in monitoring the impact of generative AI and vigorously enforcing the law as appropriate to protect competition and consumers. The comment explains that the FTC has an interest in copyright-related issues beyond questions about the scope of rights and the extent of liability under the copyright laws.