Agenda

Democratic officials are expressing concern that the House Republican debt limit plan would undermine bipartisan efforts to boost internet access nationwide and secure U.S.

The Commerce Department is hard at work. Thanks to major investments like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the CHIPS and Science Act, and your support through the appropriations process, the Commerce Department is making substantial progress on some of our nation’s most pressing economic and national security priorities, including those related to our supply chains, manufacturing, innovation, and workforce. The Department must maintain sufficient oversight of the grants it makes.

The Federal Communications Commission’s May open meeting will be headlined by a pair of spectrum policy changes to both pave the way for future wireless technologies and also unlock new wireless services right now. Here’s everything we have lined up for our May open meeting:

America’s commitment to the core principles of fairness, equality, and justice are deeply

Conexon, which typically partners with rural electric cooperatives to launch broadband networks, is planning to deliver its first community broadband partnership project,] in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana. The company says it was selected by "a consortium of community organizations" to build and operate a fiber network across the parish that will connect approximately 1,500 homes and businesses. Chief among those organizations is Delta Interfaith, a community group working to close the digital divide in East Carroll.

The Southern Vermont Communications Union District’s rollout of high-speed fiberoptic cable to Bennington County is entering its second year—and by fall 2023, the work will be done. Consolidated Communications, the firm contracted by the Southern Vermont CUD, ran ahead of schedule stringing cable in Bennington and Shaftsbury in 2022, and has started work in Manchester. A job that was anticipated to take as long as five years in the CUD’s 14 towns is now expected to be completed in a matter of months. How did that happen, when other CUDs had a head start on the Southern Vermont CUD?

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is proposing to issue 1) a Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Challenge Process Policy Notice to provide Eligible Entities with additional guidance on how to design and conduct their BEAD challenge process and 2) A BEAD Model Challenge Process to provide Eligible Entities.

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report uncovered that “federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping, with more than 100 programs administered by 15 agencies.” We request that GAO build upon this work and conduct an additional review of federal, state, and local broadband efforts to determine the effectiveness of each program.

The Supreme Court will consider whether the First Amendment prohibits a public official from blocking constituents from personal social media accounts when those accounts are used to communicate with the public. The court took two cases for the term that begins in October 2023 to decide a digital-age issue that has been active in lower courts.