Electric cooperatives want to help bridge the digital divide between rural and urban America as more federal funding becomes available for rural broadband. Mississippi is among the states that rely most heavily on rural electric cooperatives, nonprofits that deliver power to their members in rural areas. Yet since 1942, Mississippi state law has restricted its cooperatives to working in electric services -- a 77-year-old law may prevent Mississippi from fully tapping into millions of new federal dollars to expand high-speed internet service to needy rural communities. Its legislature is expected to take up bills that challenge the state law and the role of electric cooperatives early in its session that began on Jan. 8.

Beyond Mississippi, electric cooperatives in other states also face barriers: Georgia’s electric cooperatives are considering expanding into broadband, but state law does not address whether they can. Tennessee’s electric cooperatives had been barred from offering internet services to their members until the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act passed in 2017. But they’re unable to invest assets from electricity services into broadband expansion or offer broadband outside their coverage area without local permission. And in North Carolina, a state law prohibits electric cooperatives from using USDA funds to provide telecommunications services. As more cooperatives across the country provide internet services to their members, or consider expanding their roles, the ability to compete for federal funding becomes more important. Mississippi’s hurdle might be cleared quickly with new state legislation, but its conundrum illustrates the challenges rural states often face in keeping up with economy-boosting technology and the ability to pay for it.

House Democrats want to use the coming months to execute a bold tech agenda ahead of the 2020 presidential election, but they may need to make peace with each other first. While Democrats insist they bring a unified front to the issue of online privacy, they're kicking off this year with a clash between Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a thought leader on privacy issues, and House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who's committee is responsible for shepherding any such legislation. “If Democrats can’t agree with each other, how can they come to a single position with the Republicans?" said industry analyst Roger Entner. But Democratic lawmakers said the caucus remains united on key tech issues like privacy. "I think those are areas where we have broader consensus ... on privacy and broadband, I think that's a place where the party can come together," Rep. Khanna said.

The promotion of diverse viewpoints has been the cornerstone of United States media policy over the last 100 years. In Nov 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published an article that delineated the algorithm that Facebook will use to disincentivize hate speech. Although Zuckerberg’s proposal is a laudable step for content moderation, it may be neglecting the value of exposing people to diverse views and competing sources of news. As we debate moderation issues, platforms should consider not only the prohibition of hate speech, but also the affirmative exposure to broader ideas and perspectives. The Federal Communications Commission’s implementation of the diversity principle on radio and TV offers some valuable lessons.

[Jane Lee is a policy fellow at Public Knowledge]

The House unanimously approved the Federail CIO Authorization Act, a bill that would elevate the federal chief information officer within the White House chain of command. The bill would make the position a direct report to the Office of Management and Budget director. It would also designate both the federal CIO and federal chief information security officer as presidentially appointed positions. The legislation still has no Senate sponsor.  “Americans need to know that we are doing everything we can to keep their most precious information safe,” said bill co-sponsor Rep Will Hurd (R-TX). “This bill helps keep the vast information stored by the federal government secure from hackers by making clear that the federal CIO is in charge of the security of our data across the government."

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) announced the full Democratic rosters for the six subcommittees in the 116th Congress, including the six subcommittee chairs and the full Committee Vice Chair, who were elected by the Democrats on the Committee. Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA) was selected as Chairman of the Communications Subcommittee. Additional chairmen:

• Subcommittee on Communications and Technology – Rep. Mike Doyle (PA)
• Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce – Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL)
• Subcommittee on Energy – Rep. Bobby Rush (IL)
• Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change – Rep. Paul Tonko (NY)
• Subcommittee on Health –  Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA)
• Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations – Rep. Diana DeGette (CO)

Subcommittee on Communications and Technology

• Mike Doyle (PA) – Chair
• Jerry McNerney (CA)
• Yvette Clarke (NY)
• David Loebsack (IA)
• Marc Veasey (TX)
• A. Donald McEachin (VA)
• Darren Soto (FL)
• Tom O’Halleran (AZ)
• Anna Eshoo (CA)
• Diana DeGette (CO)
• G.K. Butterfield (NC)
• Doris Matsui (CA)
• Peter Welch (VT)
• Ben Ray Luján (NM)
• Kurt Schrader (OR)
• Tony Cárdenas (CA)
• Debbie Dingell (MI)
• Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ) – Ex Officio

William Barr’s nomination as President Doanld Trump’s attorney general is in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducted a confirmation hearing Jan 15. Below are some key communications policy takeaways:

Jailing Journalists: Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) pressed Barr on the rights of the press. And when she asked him would “the Justice Department jail journalists for doing their jobs,” he didn’t exactly say no. After pausing, Barr said it was possible, but only as a “last resort." “I think that, you know, I know there are guidelines in place. And I can conceive of situations where, you know, as a last resort and where a news organization has run through a red flag or something like that, knows that they’re putting out stuff that will hurt the country — there could be a situation where someone could be held in contempt."

Antitrust: In response to a different question from Sen Klobuchar, Barr said he was concerned that the Justice Department's antitrust division was not engaging in some of AT&T-Time Warner's arguments about why the merger did not violate antitrust. Barr reiterated that he would recuse himself from any matters related to Justice's ongoing legal challenge of that merger, as he was a member of the Time Warner board and filed an affidavit challenging DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim's characterization of a meeting about the deal where Barr was also in attendance.

During an exchange with Sen Mike Lee (R-UT), Barr said that he wanted to better understand the dynamic between Silicon Valley and the nation’s antitrust officials who have allowed tech companies to grow so big. “I’m sort of interested in stepping back and reassessing, or learning more, about how the antitrust division has been functioning and what their priorities are,” said Barr, who previously served as attorney general under the George H.W. Bush administration. “I don’t think big is necessarily bad, but I think a lot of people wonder how such huge behemoths that now exist in Silicon Valley have taken shape under the nose of the antitrust enforcers.” He added that he doesn’t know if internet giants have run afoul of antitrust laws. Barr only said that he wanted to learn more about the DOJ’s antitrust approach and did not indicate whether he would push for a tougher stance towards Silicon Valley if confirmed.

Huawei, ZTE: Barr said he shared concerns over the "danger" of using tech from Chinese telecoms ZTE and Huawei in US networks. He said when he was an executive with Verizon in the early 2000's, the company already recognized that danger and would not use such equipment in its networks even though it was economically attractive.