In the 20th century, connecting your house to the electric grid was the best way to experience the rapidly evolving world. These days, the best way to engage with modern society is undoubtedly the internet. The name of the game is broadband internet. That means a connection fast enough to stream TV at home, connect computers in a school, or manage a small business. And while internet speeds in urban areas continue to get faster, about a quarter of people living in rural or tribal communities are still stuck using slow connections. As the internet becomes a must-have, and not a nice-to-have, these underserved areas risk getting left behind. Enter Congress, which created a program through the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that aimed to close this digital gap. The goal was to connect all Americans with broadband internet so that we all can benefit from an increasingly digital economy. The federal government promised to give $42 billion to the states and U.S. territories to connect the most remote places in the country. Now, the Trump Administration wants to change the program in ways that could affect what kind of internet technology we use in rural communities for the next few decades. And one person who may benefit? Elon Musk.

Rep Dave Taylor (R-OH-2) introduced the Bridging the Broadband Gap Act, which will prioritize the affordability and expansion of broadband to rural communities through satellite and fixed-wireless broadband. This bill will allow states to use funds from the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment Program to pay for 50 percent of the initial cost of a satellite or fixed wireless receiver and $30 of each monthly bill for the first year of service. It will additionally give service priority to counties in the bottom 50 percent of a state’s per capita income. Specifically, this bill would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to authorize recipients of funds under the BEAD Program to provide broadband vouchers to households in specific locations. Since BEAD has already allocated federal funds to states, the Bridging the Broadband Gap Act would allow current funding to be used for vouchers.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has worked with and learned from the thousands of people on the ground in communities across the country who are doing the important work of narrowing the digital divide. Along the way, we've learned about five essentials for running successful digital navigator programs:

1. Trust is key. 
2. You will need time, probably more than you think.
3. Your digital navigators will need financial and organizational support.
4. Measure your digital navigator program success in unconventional ways.
5. Your digital navigators need ongoing training and community support.

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology announced the launch of the state’s $17 million Digital Opportunity grant program, which will expand North Carolinians’ access to digital devices, help desk and technical support, as well as digital skills and online safety programs. NCDIT’s Office of Digital Opportunity will administer the program with funds from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to expand economic development by ensuring North Carolinians have the skills and technology needed to compete for jobs. The Digital Opportunity grant program includes two tracks, and applicants may apply for Track 1 and/or Track 2:

• Track 1- Digital Skills, Digital Navigation and Online Safety: This track will be used to expand or create digital literacy and online safety skills programs and/or expand or create digital navigator programs.
• Track 2- Computer Ownership Capacity Building and Sustainability: This track will be used to expand computer ownership through two sub-tracks to refurbish and deploy computers. 

Applications for each track will be accepted through June 9 at 11:59 p.m.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has signed House Bill 2061, which amends the definition of a critical infrastructure facility to include telecommunications and broadband infrastructure. This will extend legal protections to these facilities to help ensure their security and limit service outages for Kansans. The bill specifies that the term includes aboveground and belowground lines, cables, and wires used for telecommunications or video services as well as antennas, towers, and structures. The functioning of this equipment is critical for maintaining internet service for Kansans, and the increased protections laid out in this bill will ensure reliable services remain available. 

Remote communities in the northwest mountains of South Carolina were desperate for high-speed internet. Then, after years of waiting for a reliable service provider, their electric cooperative forged a partnership to step in and build a fiber broadband network. “We recognized that our area was very unserved and underserved with access to high-speed internet, and we were concerned about it," said Jim Lovinggood, president and CEO of Pickens-based Blue Ridge Electric, which has a rugged 1,800-square-mile footprint. Upcountry Fiber launched in 2021, and as of today, the Blue Ridge Electric and West Carolina Telephone Cooperative partnership has connected 23,000 subscribers across 3,500 miles of fiber and is preparing a second build ahead of schedule. As more electric co-ops weigh partnerships to deliver internet service to their rural communities, NRECA released a new white paper prepared by Keller & Heckman LLP that explores the pros and cons, how to formalize a broadband partnership, potential partners and the roles they may play and more.

Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December 2024 meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate. The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan. The first-of-its-kind signal at a Geneva summit with the outgoing Biden administration startled American officials used to hearing their Chinese counterparts blame the campaign, which security researchers have dubbed Volt Typhoon, on a criminal outfit, or accuse the U.S. of having an overactive imagination. 

President Trump issued a memorandum to the heads of executive agencies directing the review and repeal of unlawful regulations without a period for notice or comment. "In effectuating repeals of facially unlawful regulations, agency heads shall finalize rules without notice and comment, where doing so is consistent with the “good cause” exception in the Administrative Procedure Act. That exception allows agencies to dispense with notice-and-comment rulemaking when that process would be “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Retaining and enforcing facially unlawful regulations is clearly contrary to the public interest. Furthermore, notice-and-comment proceedings are “unnecessary” where repeal is required as a matter of law to ensure consistency with a ruling of the United States Supreme Court. Agencies thus have ample cause and the legal authority to immediately repeal unlawful regulations."

President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum removing former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency head Christopher Krebs' security clearance. The Memorandum also directs the Attorney General to conduct a review of Krebs' activities as a government employee. "I hereby direct the heads of executive department and agencies to immediately take steps consistent with existing law to revoke any active security clearance held by Christopher Krebs. I further direct the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and all other relevant agencies to immediately take all action as necessary and consistent with existing law to suspend any active security clearances held by individuals at entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest."

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr, recently launched his own proceeding he calls “IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.” Carr says he’s following Trump’s orders to deregulate the telecommunications industry to spur economic prosperity. But based on Carr’s own words and actions over the past few months, maybe instead of DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, we need to “Control-Alt-Delete” and reboot before he does any more harm. Carr claims he is alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens on industry, but these claims ring hollow when we take even the most cursory look at his recent public pronouncements and reports of behind-the-scenes deals. He has demanded top executives explain themselves in private meetings, warned media companies against prioritizing the hiring or promotion of diverse candidates, criticized editorial choices, threatened public hearings, and, in general, tried to intimidate executives with the specter of potentially costly reviews of their dealings. He’s even gone after the radio and TV stations that bring you Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Antiques Roadshow, and Big Bird. All under pretenses that at least one U.S. Senator calls “arbitrary and capricious.” Even in this proceeding, Carr is exercising power as if he is the only decision-maker at the FCC. Disregarding an 80-year-old law that governs how federal agencies develop, issue, and “delete” regulations, he launched this affair without the support of his fellow commissioners or FCC staff.