Communications Act of 1934

The Save Our E-Rate campaign—led by the American Library Association and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition—has the right name for this moment. On June 25, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking raising fundamental questions about the future of the Universal Service Fund's Schools and Libraries program.

I was recently reading some older regulations related to copper, and this reminded me how regulation was used for many years to shape competition, or to be more precise, regulation was used to protect monopoly providers from competition.

It is disheartening and surprising that the Commission in the current proceeding asks questions that run directly counter to the goals of universal service and Congress’s directives. While most of the country and world are racing ahead to prepare for the future facing our nation’s citizens and students, the Commission is asking whether it should shelve or significantly reduce the E-Rate program, which is the financial pillar supporting most schools’ and libraries’ digital connections. The statute provides the Commission no authority to do so.

Governments spend billions of dollars to bring broadband to places that lack it. This report asks how much of the new service in the places six programs came from the subsidies, and how much would have arrived anyway. We compare the areas each program funded with similar areas it did not fund, track both over time, and call the difference the program’s effect. The main measure is access, whether a location can buy at least 100/20 Mbps from a wired or licensed wireless provider.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the E-Rate program, asking if E-Rate is still necessary and how the program should change. This proceeding could drastically impact the work of the schools and libraries that rely on E-Rate funding. Every state has E-Rate coordinators that help schools and libraries navigate the federal program.

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez to issue a legal opinion addressing whether the Communications Act permits the Federal Communications Commission to legally operate with members from a single political party. He wrote, "As you know, President Trump recently nominated Danielle Thumann Severs to be an FCC Commissioner. If confirmed, she would become the third Republican commissioner on the FCC, with you as the sole Democrat.

In the Beckett play Happy Days, the main character, Winnie, begins the play buried to her waist in a mound of dirt. A bell rings. She wakes up. And she announces: “Another heavenly day.” She carries on. She goes through her routines. She talks incessantly. She is adapting to her circumstances. When the second act begins, the mound has risen to her neck.

You’d be hard-pressed to find many people who don’t intuitively consider the internet essential infrastructure, and their broadband service an essential utility. The last time Congress comprehensively addressed how we should govern the communications landscape was the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Thirty years ago, we went on the internet.

SpaceX is continuing to pursue its case with the Federal Communications Commission that the proliferation of low-Earth orbit satellite service renders rural broadband subsidies obsolete, while depicting the opposing arguments of "subsidy-dependent incumbents" as "unfounded" and "implausible." The company's most recent remarks on the matter came in the form of reply comments to the FCC's proceeding on modernizing High-Cost, a program operated under the Universal Service Fund that helps subsidize telecom network deployment and maintenance in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the fourth quarter of 2026 will be 0.42 or 42.0 percent. The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), in consultation with the OMD, instructs the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to apply $69 million in unused funds to offset the Schools and Libraries program demand and $56 million in unused funds to offset the Rural Health Care program demand.