What's on the agenda for policymakers.
Agenda
New Data Confirm Internet Isn't Broken
When the Federal Communications Commission ended the Obama Administration’s failed, two-year experiment with these heavy-handed regulations back in 2017, Title II advocates guaranteed that doing so would literally break the Internet. They claimed that broadband prices would spike, that you would be charged for each website you visited, and that the Internet itself would slow down. None of this was true. Broadband speeds increased, prices decreased, competition intensified, and years of record-breaking infrastructure builds brought millions across the digital divide.
10:00 am: WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
- Welcome from Commission Leadership Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (invited)
- Commissioners (invited)
- Alejandro Roark, Chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB)
- Diane Burstein, Deputy Bureau Chief, CGB
Welcome from DAC Co-Chairs Kyle Dixon and Kim Charlson, DAC Co-Chairs
Roll Call of DAC Members
10:30 am: FCC DISABILITY RIGHTS OFFICE UPDATE
What a TikTok Ban Would Mean for the U.S. Defense of an Open Internet
For decades, the United States has fashioned itself the champion of an open internet, arguing that the web should be largely unregulated and that digital data should flow around the globe unhindered by borders. The government has argued against internet censorship abroad and even funded software that lets people in autocratic states get around online content restrictions.
The future of the net neutrality fight
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been tussling for roughly two decades over regulations that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. And that battle is about to enter a new round. Chair Jessica Rosenworcel will lead her fellow Democrats to impose the rules, known as net neutrality, for the third time. A court overturned them when a Democratic-controlled FCC first voted to put them in place in 2010.
New Dems Implore House Republicans to Join Democrats in Preventing 23 Million American Households From Losing Internet Access
New Democrat Coalition Rep Angie Craig (D-MN) and Freshman Leadership Representative Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) led 95 New Democrat Coalition Members in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling on House Republican Leadership to take immediate bipartisan action to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
Topics selected for open meeting agendas will be posted on the FCC's website approximately three weeks prior to the monthly meeting. The FCC will also issue a public notice of the "Commission Meeting Agenda" one week before the meeting and announce at that time the items that are scheduled for the agenda.
A discussion on internet affordability and the pressing need for sustainable solutions for communities
Can the FCC Fund the ACP?
A lot of folks have been pleading with the Federal Communications Commission to pick up the tab to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Folks are assuming that the FCC has the ability to take on the ACP program inside the Universal Service Fund.
Accessing high-speed Internet in correctional settings can serve as a conduit for incarcerated individuals to receive vocational and technology training programs and set them on a path to success. This webinar will highlight state and local examples of how leaders in this space are creating economic development opportunities for justice-impacted individuals and how they are defining their digital equity baselines, indicators, and goals as well as tools they use to measure success.
Mapping Broadband: What Does It Mean for Service to Be “Available”?
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has now given 48 states the green light to start their required Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program challenge process to refine the list of locations that will be eligible for BEAD funding. The starting point for the states is the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map, based on its Broadband Data Collection (BDC), with the state-run challenge process providing stakeholders the opportunity to make updates and corrections.