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Round-Up for the Week of July 13-17, 2026

Every year, the Federal Communications Commission releases an annual performance plan that outlines the FCC's agenda and the goals it seeks to achieve. On July 6, the FCC released its Agency Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2027, which provides the public with a general outline of what the agency is prioritizing in the near future—and what it is not.

The FCC's strategic plans, released every few years, serve as a broader framework and a yardstick against which the agency's annual performance reports assess whether the FCC did what it said it would do. This most recent Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 performance report, spanning July 1, 2026—June 30, 2027, includes the FCC's most immediate activities and the timelines for completing them.

FCC Performance = Build America Agenda

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says that the 2027 performance plan serves to execute his "Build America" agenda, consistent with the messaging of the 2026-2030 Strategic Plan for the agency:

The 2026 and 2027 Agency Performance Plans are structured around the exact same overarching four goals and subsequent objectives to achieve them.

Goal 1: Accelerating high-speed infrastructure builds.

Objectives:

• 1.1: Expand commercial access to mid-band spectrum.
• 1.2: Reduce barriers to broadband deployment.
• 1.3: Ensure access to spectrum resources necessary to fuel space, mobile broadband, and unlicensed wireless device sector growth.
• 1.4: Alleviate regulatory requirements to facilitate technology transitions and innovation.

Goal 2: Promote national security and public safety.

Objectives:

• 2.1: Establish and advance the work of the new FCC Council on National Security.
• 2.2: Support interoperability, resiliency, security, and rapid restoration of critical communications infrastructure and services, and the public safety community’s access to spectrum resources.
• 2.3: Restore U.S. international leadership in space and terrestrial-based communications.
• 2.4: Promote the public’s and first responders’ access to reliable 911 and next-generation (NG) 911 services.
• 2.5: Advance emergency alerting capabilities that are more responsive to public safety and consumer needs.

Goal 3: Protect consumers and promote free speech.

Objectives:

• 3.1: Crack down on illegal robocalls.
• 3.2: Ensure consumers have access to information of choice and advanced telecommunications and technologies.
• 3.3: Ensure that FCC policies consider consumer protection issues across all technologies and sectors.

Goal 4: Enhance efficiency and accountability, and reduce waste.

Objectives:

• 4.1: Reduce regulatory overreach and eliminate unnecessary regulations.
• 4.2: Promote transparency and timeliness in operations.
• 4.3: Reduce fraud, waste, and abuse across FCC programs and operations.

The only difference between the core goals and objectives of the 2026 and 2027 performance plans is that the 2026 version includes reinstating the FCC's spectrum auction authority, which was renewed in "The One, Big Beautiful Bill," signed July 4, 2025.

When it comes to alignment with Chairman Carr's Build America agenda, the 2027 plan addresses all of Carr's priorities except for one: "Strengthening America's Workforce," which includes ensuring that tower and telecommunications crews can operate in safe and sustainable environments with rising wages. Otherwise, all Build America goals are included in the 2026-2027 performance plan framework.

New in 2027: Performance Metrics and More Specifics

Although the 2026 and 2027 performance plans are organized almost identically, the 2027 edition is almost twice as large. The 2027 plan is a more fleshed-out version of the 2026 plan—the first under Chairman Carr's tenure—and the most prominent change between the two lies in the addition of quantifiable performance metrics for all the plan's strategic goals and objectives. Below are some notable performance metrics for each strategic goal in the 2027 performance plan.

Metrics for Goal 1: Accelerating high-speed infrastructure builds.

• Complete the competitive bidding process for at least 100 megahertz of the 3.98-4.2 GHz band for mobile broadband use and the development of innovative consumer products by July 4, 2027.
• Reach a percentage in broadband serviceable location units served by at least one fixed terrestrial broadband provider with high-speed connectivity (i.e., ≥ 100/20 Megabits per second, or Mbps) of 97.5 percent in FY 2027.
• Reach a percentage in broadband serviceable location units served by two or more fixed terrestrial broadband providers with high-speed connectivity (i.e., ≥ 100/20 Mbps) of 79.5 percent in FY 2027.
• Reduce the average processing time for satellite and earth station applications to 120 days for FY 2027.

Metrics for Goal 2: Promote national security and public safety.

• Ensure 95 percent of all public safety radio applications are reviewed within 45 days in FY 2027.
• Eighty percent of 911 calls meet FCC-mandated horizontal and vertical location-accuracy benchmarks across all technology deployments and across both nationwide and non-nationwide wireless carriers, as verified through testing and certification results, in FY 2027.
• Ensure 100 percent of false alert reports to the FCC that are reviewed and acted on within 30 days in FY 2027.

Metrics for Goal 3: Protect consumers and promote free speech.

• Run three consumer outreach and education campaigns conducted to raise awareness of robocall mitigation tactics in FY 2027.
• By 2027, 100 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers will have access to voice-to-988 georouting.
• Run five consumer education campaigns developed in response to consumer protection issues in FY 2027.

Metrics for Goal 4: Enhance efficiency and accountability, and reduce waste.

• Reduction in processing timelines of simple and complex acquisition actions to less than thirty days for simple actions and less than twelve months for complex actions by FY 2027.
• Ensure 99 percent availability of information technology systems by FY 2027.
• Attaining a clean/unmodified audit opinion from the FCC’s independent financial statement auditors.

Left out in 2027: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Affordability

Unsurprisingly, the largest omissions from the 2026 and 2027 performance plans are strategic goals to ensure affordable broadband service or address digital inequities, consistent with the Trump Administration's stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the shift in FCC leadership from former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to current Chairman Carr.

In the 2025 performance plan, Strategic Goal 2 was entirely devoted to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion:

The 2026 and 2027 plans under Chairman Carr entirely eschewed this agency priority. While the 2027 plan briefly says it will "bring Americans across the digital divide," it does not mention any of the above priorities, nor does it use the term "digital discrimination" or outline specific actions to reach any particular underserved populations beyond rural communities.

The 2025 plan also included extensive information about how the FCC would promote broadband affordability programs—such as the since-expired Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the Universal Service Fund (USF) Programs—and conduct other outreach efforts to encourage broadband adoption, including:

• Promoting affordable access to reliable broadband networks and healthcare in America’s rural, Tribal, insular, and high-cost areas, and to people of color and others who have been historically underserved, persons who live in rural areas, on Tribal lands, persons with disabilities, and persons otherwise affected by persistent poverty, discrimination, or inequity;
• Connecting schools and libraries by providing affordable access to broadband services through the E-Rate program; and
• A supplemental request for an additional $6 billion for the ACP to continue funding the program (although it has since lapsed), and a host of activities to promote the program had it received additional funding.

The 2027 plan includes only two lines on affordable broadband. First, the FCC commits to "moderniz[ing] Universal Service Fund Programs (E-Rate, Rural Health Care, Lifeline, and High Cost) to reflect market demands and advancement in network technologies, consistent with the intent of Congress." Then, the FCC states it will "accelerate broadband access and affordability in rural areas." However, neither of these statements is reflected in the 2027 plan's quantifiable performance metrics.

Another gap between the 2025 and 2026/2027 plans is the inclusion of Tribal-specific engagement. Under Strategic Goal 1 of the 2025 plan, the FCC committed to "work[ing] in partnership with state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, and consumer and industry groups, to ensure that broadband networks are deployed to all American consumers, including those in Tribal, rural, insular, and high-cost areas." This effort included:

• Facilitating Tribal engagement in the FCC's Broadband Data Collection challenge process and development of the National Broadband Map, and
• Enhanced communications and outreach with Tribal governments to ensure awareness and participation in FCC proceedings to provide opportunities for Tribal Nations to inform the FCC and to help ensure that their views and interests are heard in the decision-making process.

In the 2027 plan, the inclusion of Tribal governments is reduced to one sentence: "The FCC will coordinate with Federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government partners and industry stakeholders to support disaster response and to ensure the Nation’s defense and homeland security."

Accountability...But How Much?

The FCC's 2027 Agency Performance Plan comes with some built-in accountability, as each goal now has metrics to measure its progress. But accountability only matters for what gets counted, and the plan's omissions make it clear that the FCC is no longer interested in measuring progress on broadband affordability, equity, and Tribal engagement. Next summer, we will see if the FCC delivers on its "Build America" agenda laid out in the 2027 performance plan.

Quick Bits

• August FCC Open Commission Meeting Agenda
• Fiber Broadband Association says new grant rules create 'real risk for broadband deployment'
• Losing E-Rate could cause school staff cuts
• Nearly 200 Economists and Tech Leaders Warn of A.I. Threats

Weekend Reads

• The AI Accountability Agenda: Taking Power Back from Big Tech
• The Costs of Consolidation
• Local News Shortage Leads to $1.1 Billion in Extra Borrowing Costs for Local Governments and Taxpayers
• How Americans Are Engaged With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life

ICYMI from Benton

• Court Rules the Digital Equity Act's Race Provision Is Unconstitutional—But Severable
• From Education to Advocacy: The First Year of the Blue Ridge Broadband Alliance
• From "100 Percent Broadband" to "Build America": What the FCC's New Strategic Plan Says—and What It Doesn't
• Nearly 200 Nations Step Through the Door Towards AI Governance

Upcoming Events

Jul 22—July 2026 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (Federal Communications Commission)

Jul 22—Markup Session (Senate Commerce Committee)

Jul 22—Digital Innovation Summit (Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership)

Jul 29—Protecting Schools and Libraries: The Cybersecurity Pilot Program and the Road Ahead (Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition)

Aug 6—August 2026 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (Federal Communications Commission)

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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