Rep Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) “Broadband Justice Act,” co-sponsored by Housing Subcommittee Chairman Rep Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), would require the Housing and Urban Development Department, along with the Treasury and US Dept of Agriculture, to update its utility allowance definitions to include broadband so it can be subsidized for families living in government-assisted housing. Other utilities like gas and electricity are already subsidized in this way. The bill would also create a new grant program to help wire buildings and build out other broadband-related infrastructure. “The more access to broadband people have, the more access and opportunity they have to the world beyond where they currently exist,” Rep Bowman said. “The internet is a library. It’s an encyclopedia. It’s information.”

On March 2, 2021, Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS) asked Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel for a detailed status of funds report for all Universal Service Fund (USF) accounts, including but not limited to the Connect America Fund (CAF), Lifeline Program for Low-Income Consumers, E-Rate - Schools & Libraries Program, and the Rural Health Care Program. "This report should clearly identify the amount of funds currently available, committed, and obligated...I request that this report be made available to my staff no later than March 9, 2021."

On March 9, Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel said, "In response to your request for information from the Federal Communications Commission, enclosed please find reports containing detailed financial data about the status of the Universal Service Fund programs from the Universal Service Administrative Company, the agency’s latest Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service Monitoring Report, as well as a list of high-cost fund obligations not otherwise detailed in these reports. If helpful, I would be happy to direct FCC staff to meet with your office to discuss these matters."

The Obama-era Federal Trade Commission spent 19 months investigating Google over allegations that it violated antitrust laws by favoring its own products over rivals’ in search results. The agency ultimately voted against taking action, saying changes Google made to its search algorithm gave consumers better results and therefore didn’t unfairly harm competitors. That conclusion underplays what the FTC’s staff found during the probe. In 312 pages of documents, the vast majority never publicly released, staffers outlined evidence that Google had taken numerous steps to ensure it would continue to dominate the market — including emerging arenas such as mobile search and targeted advertising. FTC staff urged the agency’s five commissioners to sue Google for signing exclusive contracts with Apple and the major wireless carriers that made sure the company’s search engine came pre-installed on smartphones. But the commissioners closed that part of the probe without taking action or publicly disclosing it. Nearly eight years later, those contracts were a major part of an antitrust suit that the Justice Department and 11 states filed against Google in October 2020.