Local/Municipal

Rep Valerie Foushee (D-NC-04) introduced the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act, which would establish a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Commerce to modernize the technology infrastructure utilized by state and local governments to improve security and efficacy of public services. Specifically, the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act would:

Keri Rodrigues, a mother of five boys, knows the value of screens. For her boys, four of whom receive school accommodations, screens serve a practical purpose at school. “When you get a kid who's got [a learning plan] for anxiety and a substitute teacher that hasn't read his 504 [plan] and there's nobody there to de-escalate him, he's got to use his phone to call mom so I can FaceTime with him and do a breathing exercise,” Rodrigues says. But this use of screens bumps against a new concern.

Supporters of an effort to build a municipal fiber broadband network in Longmeadow (MA) suffered a defeat when a town vote to fund the first phase of network construction failed. According to those involved, that failure followed a well-funded "dark money" opposition campaign, believed to be connected to Comcast. But advocates of the network say they hope to try again.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has circulated guidance to Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program grant winners titled BEAD Subgrantees: Protect Your Rights. The overall tenor of the document is odd in that it invites an internet service provider to directly contact NTIA if it thinks the contract offered by a State Broadband Office contradicts NTIA policy. Where I think NTIA went off the rails is a set of requirements related to permitting:

While headlines focus on massive hyperscale data centers in remote locations, a quieter but significant infrastructure shift is unfolding closer to home. Smaller AI computing centers are beginning to appear deep in America’s towns and cities—at existing telecommunications facilities, at the base of cell towers, and even at power substations—often without local and state officials realizing it.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development invites grant applications to build community-oriented, high-speed internet networks for people in rural areas. USDA Rural Development is making approximately $17 million available under the Community Connect Grant Program. The program provides financial assistance to eligible applicants that will provide broadband service in rural, economically challenged communities where service does not exist.

On May 1, 2026, Nextlink Internet activated the first tower in the nation funded by the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The site is located in southern Bienville Parish (LA), bringing service to 104 BEAD locations in Bossier Parish. It is delivering up to gigabit-speed internet to homes and businesses across northwest Louisiana via fixed wireless infrastructure.

Nearly 400 rural students in the Lordsburg (NM) Municipal Schools now have access to high-speed internet after a state-funded broadband project completed construction in one of New Mexico’s rural communities.

Inequity is not inevitable. It surfaces through rhetoric from leaders, personnel that mirror the values (or lack thereof) of said leaders, funding structures, policy implementation, and court decisions. In other words, inequity does not appear out of thin air. Inequity begins with an idea from someone’s imagination. It is only through power, resource allocation, and replication that an idea can take shape, gain traction, and impact lives.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep Ritchie Torres (D-NY), The New York Public Library President Anthony Marx, and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy celebrated a $2 million expansion of the Neighborhood Internet program at an affordable housing development in the Bronx. Neighborhood Internet is a groundbreaking partnership between the City and NYPL that extends free, high-speed broadband to low-income New Yorkers.