Now with a major congressional negotiation on infrastructure underway and a new presidential administration in place, federal leaders have a historic opportunity to revisit past policies to better support today’s metropolitan leaders and their contemporary ambitions. That process, though, must start with a clear understanding of what regional leaders need—and not just infrastructure agencies, but also the business leadership and community groups that all collaborate to build competitive, inclusive, and resilient economies. Respondents of Brookings' regional leaders survey were intimately aware of the nuanced infrastructure needs in their region: declines in transit ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic, energy grid upgrades, expanding broadband, and more. Concerns around transit and economic equity coalesced around infrastructure maintenance and interrelated disparities within transportation, water, and broadband access. Federal programs which work to ameliorate these inequities are seen by respondents as insufficient, and do not reflect modern realities. Additionally, planning guidelines either do not require projects to form around a common vision (such as long-range transportation plans) or there is no long-range planning requirement at all (such as within the broadband sector).

As the US recovers from one of the worst economic crises in our history, we will be looking to small businesses to revitalize our local communities and hire displaced workers. But these enterprises will need high-performance broadband to innovate and adapt to our new, post-COVID reality. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission's standards are not running apace. The FCC has not updated its speed benchmark for 6 years. 2015's definition of 'high-speed' is antiquated—and it is holding us back. It is well past time for the FCC to set new benchmark speeds that reflect what true broadband is in 2021—and allow us to build back better.

As President Biden and Congress debate a $1.2 [tr]illion infrastructure bill that includes a historic investment in broadband, it’s an important moment to question what we mean by digital equity and what it will take to achieve it. Pandemic disruptions to school and work made the quest for affordable “broadband for all” a more urgent matter, and  recognition that digital infrastructure is essential has never been more bipartisan. All this means that achieving digital equity may be more possible right now than ever before. But to achieve that goal, we have to retire old ways of defining the problem. Too many families struggle when they have to rely on malfunctioning devices or their internet is cut off because they have more pressing bills to pay. If we do not account for whether families’ digital access actually meets their needs, we cannot fully assess their virtual learning experiences or develop adequate support for students as they return to in-person school this fall. School leaders and policymakers need to reckon with the realities of being under-connected, but so do content creators. Many parents relied on educational TV, videos and games during the pandemic to keep their children learning and growing, and the lowest-income families and families of color relied on these media most of all. Designing with the dynamic needs of under-connected students and families in mind will require content creators to think about accessibility in more nuanced and creative ways. There are three steps that policymakers, local school districts and content creators can take right now to resolve the challenges of being under-connected:

1. Policymakers must prioritize under-connected families to better support them.
2. We need local solutions to end the struggle of being under-connected.
3. Media and tech companies must ensure that families can fully participate in digital learning, even at times when they are under-connected.

[Vikki S. Katz, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. Michael H. Levine, Ph.D., is senior vice president of Nickelodeon’s early learning service, Noggin, which creates educational media for children and families.]

Social media has become as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers and television networks were in prior generations. The internet is the new public square. In recent years, however, Big Tech platforms have become increasingly brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information and people on social media—banning users, deplatforming organizations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends. This flagrant attack on free speech is doing terrible damage to our country. That is why in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I filed class-action lawsuits to force Big Tech to stop censoring the American people. The suits seek damages to deter such behavior in the future and injunctions restoring my accounts. I intend to restore free speech for all Americans—Democrats, Republicans and independents. 

[Trump was the 45th president of the United States]

Cable operators are poised to report another strong year of broadband subscriber growth in 2021 on the heels of last year’s record-breaking increases, but growth could slow substantially in 2022. The momentum from 2020—where cable operators added 4 million broadband customers— should continue into 2021 as the impact from stimulus programs to boost household income and government broadband subsidy efforts should keep churn low. However, those programs also could have masked underlying problems that could resurface as some of the projects disappear. Cable operators have warned investors not to expect the same levels of growth experienced during the height of the pandemic, and other factors like bundling broadband with wireless service could help boost subscriber levels. In addition, operators are continuously expanding their footprints into more rural markets through edge-outs and other programs, which could also mitigate any slowdown.