Today, House Democrats announced “The Moving Forward Act,” a massive infrastructure bill funding broadband deployment as well as the building of roads, bridges, housing, rail, and clean energy services.

Public Knowledge Senior Advisor Gene Kimmelman will testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today at 10:00 a.m. His testimony in the hearing on “The State of Broadband Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic” will urge Congress to pass a comprehensive legislative package to ensure that broadband is affordable, reliable, and available universally both during and after the pandemic.

Today, the United States Senate voted to pass a stimulus bill, “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act,” to address the coronavirus pandemic by providing economic support for individual Americans and businesses. Unfortunately, the bill disregards broadband subsidies for low-income Americans, largely neglects broadband deployment, and rejects any requirements for broadband providers to drop data caps, overage fees, or throttling practices to keep people connected. The bill also overlooks support for local journalism, and privacy protections for geolocation and health data. Public Knowledge is very concerned that this bill misses an opportunity to help Americans on the wrong side of the digital divide during this time of crisis, as well as the local journalists they depend on.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve a Report and Order that would commit $20.4 billion from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to fund broadband deployment.

Today, the House Energy & Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee marked up the “Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act).” The bill would improve broadband mapping data accuracy at the Federal Communications Commission. Public Knowledge supports requiring the FCC to collect more granular data to generate more accurate and detailed broadband maps.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission published its 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, claiming that “the nation’s digital divide is narrowing.” Public Knowledge contends that this finding rings hollow with unserved and underserved Americans.

We are in the second month of the 2019 hurricane season and to many, especially those living in Puerto Rico, there are fears about what this season may bring to the island that was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria almost two years ago. Those working in disaster management cite the importance of preparedness in advance of extreme weather; however, in order for a community to be prepared, there must be data that helps the community understand the full scope of their vulnerabilities.

The Federal Communications Commission is required by law (under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) to initiate a notice of inquiry and report annually on whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. This annual broadband report is incredibly important because the findings and conclusions are designed to help Congress and the FCC develop policies that ensure all Americans have robust broadband access. Reports with inaccurate data on broadband availability can skew the findings and prevent unserved and underserved areas from gaining access to broadband. The public has not yet seen the draft 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, but the FCC published a news release about the key findings.