Agenda

On April 30, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) introduced a bill that would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to track the progress of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. This bill would require NTIA's top official—Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth—to take several new steps: publish a public dashboard tracking each state's BEAD progress, build a tool to help states track federal permits needed by their subgrantees, improve federal agencies' complianc

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted the federal Universal Service Support Mechanisms fund size and administrative cost projections for the third quarter of calendar year 2026 (3Q2026). Upon approval of the quarterly funding requirements for the Support Mechanisms, the projected administrative expenses, and the submission of the contribution base amount, the Federal Communications Commission will establish a quarterly contribution factor.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has been promising a top-to-bottom review of the Universal Service Fund, and on April 29, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that looks specifically at the High-Cost fund mechanisms that provide ongoing subsidies to internet service providers operating in very rural markets. The High-Cost fund is the USF program that most people in the country (and even the industry) don’t understand.

For more than a decade, federal programs have relied on Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data to answer a deceptively simple question: who has broadband internet access and who does not? The answer determines where billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding go. Getting it right matters enormously. Getting it wrong means money fails to reach places that need it most.

Anthropic is both a risk and a necessity to AI progress, at least in the White House's telling. That tension is shaping AI policy in real time, as the White House 

Adrianne Benton Furniss is the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s new Chair of its Board of Directors. Succeeding Austin L. Hirsch, Furniss steps into her new role after a ten-year tenure as Benton’s executive director ended in 2025. For over a decade, Furniss has focused the organization on ensuring that the benefits of robust, affordable broadband service deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities around the nation. In the past year, Furniss has focused on Benton’s community engagement and other education and outreach work in the Institute’s home state of Illinois.

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Data Task Force (Task Force) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) launched the coverage restoration process, beginning on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The specifications for the data required by service providers seeking to restore coverage in the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) are available at: https://us-fcc.box.com/v/bdc-coveragerestoration-spec.

Keep Our Communities Connected (KOCC) and the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition launched the “Future of Universal Service Fund (USF) Reform Task Force." his cross-sector initiative aims to inform ongoing bipartisan and bicameral policy debates on the long-term sustainability of universal service programs that support broadband access for schools, libraries, rural communities, health providers, and low-income households.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, 2026: