ReConnect applicants committing to net neutrality may get a leg up

The Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s ReConnect broadband program is making available more than $1 billion in connectivity loans and grants for internet service providers. But applicants committing to net neutrality will get a leg up, per new USDA evaluation criteria. Internet service providers (ISPs) currently aren’t legally required to abide by anything of the sort nationwide, although California and other states have legislated on net neutrality in the absence of federal rules. Many Democrats, however, have called for reviving net neutrality regulations ever since the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission rolled them back in 2017. President Joe Biden urged the FCC to do so in July 2021 as a part of his executive order on competition. Although Democrats had said they feared ISPs would block or throttle consumers’ internet traffic in the absence of regulation, ISPs have generally still followed net neutrality principles voluntarily. The USDA’s move is a small effort to make sure ISPs keep up this behavior as left-leaning advocates await a Democratic majority at the FCC, which might try to reenact such safeguards in 2022. Thirteen Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to have his department back off from this “dangerous” provision. USDA didn’t say whether it coordinated with the FCC on the language, simply responding that the department is working to “respond as promptly as possible.”