Taking Care of America: Whose Job Is It?

[Commentary] We live in an exceptional country, we like to tell ourselves. If that’s really so, why are we letting it crumble around us? Regular readers of this column are familiar with my thoughts about the sad state of our communications ecosystem in both telecom and media. We lag in broadband compared to many other nations—in its deployment, adoption, speed, and price. We have allowed a few huge telecom and media companies to control the content and distribution of the broadband Internet and the exciting new technologies that should be making this a golden age of communications. The communications sector has grown to one-sixth of the U.S. economy, yet the majority party in Congress treats it as a side-show. While we should be investing in expanding our communications infrastructure, many legislators are at work to cut the budget of the Federal Communications Commission—the agency charged with encouraging the deployment of broadband and advanced communications across the land. Nobody can be a fully-functioning citizen in the twenty-first century without access to a high-speed, affordable broadband Internet. Or these legislators attempt every stratagem to cut consumer protections and otherwise hamstring the FCC with appropriations riders as punishment for its historic net neutrality rules. It’s more than curious, because the FCC is funded not by tax dollars but by fees for licensing and spectrum use. It actually makes money for the government, so all this budget-cutting is kabuki theater for those whose real goal is gutting government, no matter what the program. The FCC is not allowed to use most of the money it raises. Can’t the nay-sayers in Congress recognize a profit center when they see one? Think about that. The “know the cost of everything and value of nothing” crowd is telling the agency that should be looking after our communications safety, cyber-security, and threats of Internet terrorism that it should reduce its largely self-funded activities. The FCC workforce has actually declined by double digit percentages since I went there as a Commissioner in 2001—yet it has so much more that it should be doing for consumer protection and national security. I can predict this much: if and when another act of terrorism like 9/11 occurs and our communications infrastructure fails again, people will be asking Congress how it was, after all the intervening years, that those supposed to be keeping watch weren’t really watching. It won’t be a rhetorical question; I suspect an electoral house-cleaning would ensue. The costs of addressing our various national shortfalls are, obviously, enormous. These are not one-shot, one hundred day, or even one thousand day endeavors. They can be achieved only with a sense of commitment and national mission matching the best America has ever done.
[Copps leads the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause.]