Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo discussed the Commerce Department's role in implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's broadband initiatives. Of the $65 billion for broadband in the infrastructure package, $42.5 billion goes to the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. "I will confess this is going to be a massive undertaking for the Department of Commerce, but we’re up for it, said Raimondo. She stated there will be a "tremendous amount of federal oversight and transparency" pertaining to states' proposed broadband plans, and that there will be "very strict criteria" to ensure equitable affordability and accessibility. "We have to make sure that we don’t spend this money overbuilding, said Raimondo. "Which means we’ll have to work very closely with the FCC and using their maps to make sure that we focus the money where broadband doesn’t exist now." When asked about the program timeline, Raimondo said the first expansion projects would get underway "well into next year" once the bill is signed into law and the Commerce Department gets set up to distribute the funds. The measure of success for the program, according to Raimondo, is that "every single American has access to high-speed, affordable broadband."

Late November 5th, the House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The bill now goes directly to President Biden’s desk, where it will certainly become law. America finally has a generation-defining infrastructure bill—and if the reconciliation budget comes through, too, America will begin a building spree larger than what happened during the New Deal. When landmark legislation like IIJA gets passed, it’s easy to overemphasize victories on Capitol Hill. But that’s not the case for infrastructure. Passing IIJA is only the end of the beginning. Remember, IIJA isn’t a stimulus bill; it’s not a singular response to a specific economic crisis. IIJA represents a longer-term patient approach to rebuilding American competitiveness through infrastructure. It’s going to be a busy few months inside Washington and across the country as IIJA implementation begins and items like the reconciliation budget continue to move. There are four key elements to keep in mind: IIJA has more breadth than typical federal infrastructure bills; combined, IIJA and the reconciliation bill would be the biggest infrastructure investment in half a century; it will often take years to start seeing IIJA's projects in our communities; the public sector must grow to manage this level of new investment.

Residents in unincorporated areas of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, will have broadband access within two years. AT&T will begin work to provide service to an estimated 20,000 county homes and businesses now that funding has officially been approved by the Vanderburgh County Council. Vanderburgh County Commissioners signed the contract with AT&T on Nov 8 for the $39.6 million project. Bill Soards, president of AT&T Indiana, said it will be about nine months before residents start receiving information to tell them service is available in there area. A local awareness campaign will be started to keep residents updated on the progress. Once service is available, customers will be able to choose a plan. Monthly rates range from $35 to $60 depending on the speed the consumer chooses. Under the terms of the contract with AT&T, Vanderburgh County will contribute $9.9 million to the project. The money will come from the American Rescue Plan Act. The county’s payments will be made on a schedule coordinating to milestones laid out in the contract. AT&T will pay $29.7 million and will own and operate the network.

What is missing in the focus on getting laptops in the hands of children is the social component of learning—a component all too often taken for granted or even disparaged. As a culture, the United States has long loved the heroic idea of children teaching themselves. Movies and stories constantly retell this narrative of scrappy young people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. These myths are especially common regarding technical knowledge. Even though higher education is the overwhelming norm among computer programmers, and most successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, the narrative that circulates in coding boot camps, in Thiel Fellowships for college dropouts, and across the technology industry more generally is that college and even high school are unnecessary for, and might even hamper, technological entrepreneurialism. These myths also feed the “do your own research” narrative of vaccine skepticism, obscuring the significant institutional infrastructure, professionalization practices, and peer review that make scientific findings robust. And it fuels the idea that children can teach themselves anything if only they are given the right tools. 

These individualistic narratives invariably smooth over the social support that has always been an important, though unacknowledged, component of learning. Ideally, this includes a stable home environment without housing or food insecurity; a safe community with good infrastructure; and caring, skilled, well-­resourced teachers. When covid-19 shuttered schools around the world throughout 2020 and, in many areas, into 2021, the work that schools and teachers did for students suddenly fell to parents and caretakers, and it became apparent that having a working laptop and internet was only one step toward learning. The youngest students in particular needed full-time supervision and support to have any hope of participating in remote classes. Parents, who were often also juggling their own jobs, struggled to provide this support. The results were stark. Millions of parents (especially mothers) dropped out of the workforce for lack of child care. Low-income children, without the benefits of private schools, tutors, and “learning pods,” quickly fell months behind their privileged peers. Rates of child depression and suicide attempts soared. The stress of the pandemic, and the existing social inequities it accentuated, clearly took a toll on students—laptops or no. To understand the importance of social support, we can also look at what students do with their laptops in their free time.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is leading a coalition of organizations representing the world’s leading aerospace manufacturers, airlines, pilots, and operators in calling for a delay to the deployment of 5G technologies to the C-band until the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS) is ensured. In a letter to the National Economic Council (NEC), the coalition urges collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to convene a joint industry working group to bring the aviation and telecommunications industries together to find a long-term solution that will protect the flying public by ensuring radio altimeters operate accurately while allowing 5G to roll out safely. The letter comes on the heels of the FAA issuing a bulletin alerting manufacturers, operators, and pilots that action may be needed to address potential interference with radio altimeters caused by 5G systems. Radio altimeters are crucial systems used by every commercial aircraft and helicopter and many general aviation aircraft.

The Senate is only scheduled to be in three weeks for the rest of 2021, with a recess set to start on December 10. There’s almost no chance that schedule holds at this point, with the Democratic majority facing a to-do list more daunting than a Black Friday sales rush. Congress has to fund the government past December 3, pass a massive defense policy bill, finish out a $1.75 trillion party-line social spending bill and potentially maneuver around a US credit default. Each of those four bills could take several days of Senate floor time, not to mention the myriad negotiations still left to hash out President Biden’s GOP-free domestic agenda with Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV), who wants to slow things down. Already some senators are anticipating a short-term government funding patch for a few weeks, potentially right up until Christmas. And in a worst-case scenario, the debt limit would need to be raised right around that same time — something Republicans say they won’t help with. While Democrats still sound bullish on closing out their social safety net and climate measure by Thanksgiving, 2022 may be the real hard deadline. That’s when Democrats’ expanded child tax credit expires anyway — and when lawmakers will really, truly be desperate to get home after months of protracted negotiations. Prior to leaving for this week's recess, senators acknowledged it’s possible they consider the defense policy bill before the social spending bill instead, given some of the outstanding hiccups they face finishing out Biden’s agenda.

Senate Republicans are planning a strong fight against President Biden's nomination of consumer advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission. "I will do everything in my power to convince colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this extreme nominee," said Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Sohn has a longtime career in government policy, having co-founded consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge in 2001. In 2013, then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler chose Sohn to serve as a counselor, and the FCC proceeded to adopt Title II common-carrier and net neutrality regulations for Internet service providers—rules that were later overturned during the Trump administration. Since leaving the FCC, Sohn has continued to push for strict regulations to protect telecom consumers. Sohn's support of consumer protection regulations was obviously going to put her at odds with Senate Republicans, but conservatives are also claiming she'll use the FCC to censor them. Somewhat surprisingly, the argument that Sohn will censor conservatives relies partly on one instance in which she agreed with former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.