Many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are located in rural areas and blighted urban centers. These are the same places where large communities of color struggle with access to health care and face innumerable obstacles to access affordable and reliable broadband.

The Federal Communications Commission's top priority is closing the digital divide. In its latest inquiry into broadband deployment, the FCC asks how successful its efforts have been. Congress requires the FCC to determine each year if broadband is reaching all Americans in a timely fashion. For the past three years, the FCC's Republican majority, relying on its faulty data, has concluded that broadband is being deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis. Will it do so again?

I’m leading 45 of my colleagues in the Senate to fight for at least $4 billion to be delivered through the E-Rate program so students receive the Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and internet connected devices they need to learn at home. Excluding this critical aid from a new coronavirus relief package—as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Republican lawmakers recently did—will exacerbate already substantial inequities for decades. Sixteen million of our nation’s most vulnerable children will continue to suffer. They will continue to fall behind.

All it takes is a nationwide crisis to underline the most glaring equity issues our society faces. The one that has captured my attention during COVID-19 is the chronic lack of home internet access for people of color, low-income households, and rural residents. That lack of access puts schools in an especially difficult position as they expand their use of technology during the pandemic, and beyond. It's important to remember that this technology challenge has been staring us in the face for decades. It is not just a COVID-19 issue—it is a civil rights issue of the utmost importance.

We must roll out a Digital Learning Ambassadors corps immediately, staffed by young adults in predominantly immigrant communities. Millions of young people, like my students at Rutgers University, are either completing remote coursework at home or graduated this past spring. They are looking for meaningful, paid work. As tech-savvy, native speakers of languages spoken by the K-12 students who struggled most in remote learning this spring, they are our best untapped resource for supporting better learning experiences this fall.

Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) announced that she’s reintroduced bipartisan legislation with Sens Kennedy (R-LA), Ernst (R-IA), Hirono (D-HI), Risch (R-ID) and Markey (D-MA) that would improve programs operated by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to address problems associated with a lack of broadband internet and other emerging information technology resources, and better assist small businesses in accessing and successfully adopting these tools. Specifically, the Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act would make the following improvements to the SBA

One might be excused for thinking that by now, more than 200 years after the first disputed presidential election, our forebears or ourselves would have stepped up to the issue and put in place the mechanics necessary to allow a democratic nation to hold a democratic election.

From the outset of the pandemic, it was clear that we needed to do everything we could to connect patients with their health care providers. So back in March, the Federal Communications Commission immediately made an additional $42 million available through our Rural Health Care Program. We also waived socalled “gift rules” so that participants in the Rural Health Care Program could solicit and accept better services or additional equipment for telemedicine from their broadband providers. And thanks to Congress, we were able to do much, much more.

By unanimous vote, the Henry County Commission entered into a partnership with the West Kentucky & Tennessee Telecommunications Cooperative with a goal to provide the opportunity for broadband services for every household in Henry County. “Broadband is extremely necessary for our underserved areas,” County Mayor Brent Greer said. “Within a short period of time, we’ve put a lot of things together because of the importance of this.” Mayor Greer noted the work on providing broadband to Henry County actually started 18 months ago with much the same goals as there are now.

The city of Dayton is searching for a vendor to help bring high-speed internet to some high-poverty areas in the northwestern part of the city using federal coronavirus relief money. The city has issued a notice of funding opportunities that says it has $1.4 million in federal CARES Act dollars available to expand broadband access to multiple neighborhoods, including Philadelphia Woods, Fairview, Hillcrest, Dayton View, Mount Vernon, and Santa Clara. About 952 households in those neighborhoods do not have internet access, or nearly a quarter of the total (22.8%), according to Census data. T