February 2018

On Tuesday, January 30, the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology convened a hearing on broadband deployment in the US entitled Closing the Digital Divide: Broadband Infrastructure Solutions. The aim of the hearing was to discuss twenty-five resolutions and bills that address federal permitting, siting, and permissions to access rights-of-way, which some stakeholders identify as barriers to investment and broadband infrastructure deployment. True to recent form in DC, there were contentious moments at the start of the event.

Across the world, autocratic leaders are engaging in increasingly brazen behavior — rigging votes, muzzling the press and persecuting opponents — as they dispense with even a fig leaf of democratic practice once offered to placate the United States or gain international legitimacy. They  know they run little risk of rebuke from an American president who has largely abandoned the promotion of human rights and democracy in favor of his narrow “America First” agenda.