Policymakers

According to interviews and research from the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, state broadband officers are exhausted by the challenges and shifting dynamics of implementing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Leaders from the Benton Institute have interviewed over 30 SBOs so far about what it is taking to implement BEAD. And Dr. Revati Prasad of the Benton Institute talked about the takeaways from those conversations in a recent Fiber Broadband Association webinar.

Brandy Reitter, the executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office since February 2022, stepped down after giving the agency two days’ notice. “Yes, unfortunately, OIT received Brandy’s resignation. She will be missed and we appreciate her service to the state,” Erin Jeffreys, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, home to the broadband office, said in an email.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced it’s waiving its rules limiting foreign equity ownership to 25 percent in the Paramount-Warner Bros.

President Trump's longtime pollster is offering Republican candidates a detailed playbook for neutralizing Democratic attacks over AI data centers—down to what languag

Members of Congress and governors are under increasing pressure to regulate AI, but more than two dozen of them who spo

In the 21st Century, access to connectivity is essential to nearly every aspect of American life. It drives the economy. Enhances public safety. Expands educational opportunities and healthcare services. It increases agriculture productivity and improves the quality of life for people everywhere. Because broadband is so essential to our economy and society, policymakers and providers have a shared responsibility to ensure that it remains accessible, reliable, and secure for all Americans.

Jimmy Kimmel’s decision to keep his interview with a Senate candidate off the air shows just how far this Administration’s campaign of censorship and control has gone. This is now the second time in a matter of months that a late-night host has disclosed they had to bury an interview because of Federal Communications Commission intimidation, and there is no way to know how many other editorial decisions across the country have quietly been shaped by this same pressure.

Broadband programs spend years in planning, mapping, applications, and approvals. But eventually, the work has to move from paper to the field. That is where Washington state finds itself now. Jordan Arnold, Director of the Washington State Broadband Office, discusses how the state’s broadband strategy is taking shape. Arnold stepped into the role in January 2026, just before Washington received federal approval for its final Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment proposal.

Two seemingly contradictory realities are true at once:

The first 19 months of the Trump Federal Communications Commission have changed the nature of the agency. For most of its history, the FCC was a policy-driven body existing in an inevitably political environment. Under the Trump administration, it has become a politics-driven agency employing policy as an instrument.