Vice

The Senate agriculture committee is considering Farm Bill proposals that would make it harder for rural communities to get funding for internet and favors Big Telecom. Big Telecom lobbyists have urged the committee to block funding for any community where more than 10 percent of the population has internet access, and any area that has received funding through the Federal Communication Commission’s Universal Service Fund, even if people in those area still have poor access.

Few candidates, from local mayoral races all the way up to the Senate, provide lip service to the fact that millions of Americans still lack access to broadband, and even fewer flesh out a robust policy to address it. At a time when politics is more divisive than ever, basic issues such as access to the internet are being overshadowed by the massive ideological clashes happening across the country.

The Federal Communication Commission wants more than $200 to release e-mails related to Chairman Ajit Pai’s novelty, oversized coffee mug under the Freedom of Information Act.  The mug gained mild notoriety after Chairman Pai was photographed with the drinking vessel. But when Taylor Amarel, a frequent FOIA-filer who secured the release of Chairman Pai’s calendar earlier in 2018, requested all of Chairman Pai’s executive assistant’s e-mails that included terms such as "reeses", "mug", or "Reese's,” the FCC pushed back.