Level of Government

Sens Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Mike Rounds (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Cybersecurity wrote to Jay Clayton, Director of National Intelligence and Chair of the White House Task Force for Super Intelligence, and Michael Kratsios, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director, urging them to take a comprehensive approach to AI safety and the growing cybersecurity threats posed by artificial intelligence. The Senators outlined three key priorities for a succ

The Commerce Department is hoping to make broadband coverage maps as accurate as possible before a new round of funding aimed at locations that previously fell through the cracks. Assistant Commerce Secretary Arielle Roth, head of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said that at the agency’s last convening of state broadband directors, officials were adamant about “the importance of getting this right.”

As part of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s commitment to unleashing high-speed infrastructure to close the digital divide, in an Order circulated for a Commission vote, he proposes providing an additional $162 million for the Alaska Connect Fund. This additional funding builds on the work of the FCC’s Alaska Plan and Alaska Connect Fund by injecting additional dollars in Alaska for the deployment of mobile broadband services.

The $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program to bring high-speed internet to every American, which the Biden administration launched three years ago, can sometimes feel like it’s proceeding at a dial-up pace, a group of broadband experts confessed last week.

Verizon is once again urging the Federal Communications Commission to approve the carrier's plan to retire copper-based landlines in nine US states. But this time, the company says it's clearly notified which concerned customers will retain their landlines, and which won't.

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.

Louisiana’s GUMBO 2.0 program has delivered two national firsts in fiber deployment, with Coushatta becoming the first community in the nation to receive fiber internet service through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program and SkyRider Communications becoming the first provider in the nation to begin BEAD fiber construction.

Advocates for AI safety and regulation are emerging as a force in U.S. elections, spending nearly $50 million this election cycle on candidates who favor regulation. AI safety groups and individual donors have spent $48 million this cycle on Democratic and Republican races. That includes donations from researchers, such as OpenAI's Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe and Redwood's Aryan Bhatt. It also includes Guardrails Alliance, a tech-worker-backed AI safety group that has raised $11.7 million between its super PAC and 501(c)(4).

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.