Upcoming policy issue

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), one of several Democratic lawmakers mulling a 2020 presidential bid, thinks Democrats could “run on” and even “win on” wonky-but-important talk about issues like rural broadband. Sen Klobuchar told The New Yorker that while the issue might not be on the radar for “most people in urban areas … a lot of parts of our rural countryside can’t even access cell-phone service, much less broadband.” But would that matter as a campaign issue in the age of Trump, who has not commented extensively on issues like broadband?

The Federal Communications Commission is required to review biennially its regulations “that apply to the operations or activities of any provider of telecommunications service” and“determine whether any such regulation is no longer necessary in the public interest as the result of meaningful economic competition between providers of such service.” The FCC must repeal or modify any regulation that it finds are no longer in the public interest.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) became the latest lawmaker to come out in favor of the discharge petition to bring net neutrality to a vote on to the House floor. The latest pledge comes just a few days after the formal deadline to file the discharge petition elapsed.

Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn said that the new Democratic-majority House will probe the handling of net neutrality by the Trump administration.  She noted that Democrats are “angry” with the Federal Communications Commission repealing the rules that protected consumers from slowing or blocking internet content.

The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) claims T-Mobile lied to the Federal Communications Commission about the extent of its 4G LTE coverage. T-Mobile claimed—under penalty of perjury—to have coverage in areas where it hadn't yet installed 4G equipment. As part of the FCC's Mobility Fund challenge process, RWA members have conducted millions of speed tests at their own expense to determine whether the major carriers' coverage claims are correct. Those speed tests previously found that Verizon didn't cover the entire Oklahoma Panhandle as the carrier claimed.

William P. Barr, nominated to become the nation’s top law enforcement official in the Trump administration, is a former chief lawyer for Verizon Communications who has opposed net neutrality rules for more than a decade. Barr, who served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush from 1991-93, warned in 2006 that “network neutrality regulations would discourage construction of high-speed internet lines that telephone and cable giants are spending tens of billions of dollars to deploy.”

Democrats are expected to use their upcoming control of the House to push for strong net neutrality rules. Gigi Sohn -- a former lawyer at the Federal Communications Commission who is now a fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology, Law and Policy -- said she expects Democrats to use their new power to push for the restoration of strong net neutrality rules — and for the topic to be on the lips of presidential hopefuls. “I have no doubt that bills to restore the 2015 rules will be introduced in both the Senate and the House relatively early on,” Sohn said.

A group of 10 senators is calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to stand down on his proposal to classify text messaging as an information service. “We urge you to right this wrong and classify text messaging as a telecommunications service, affording this vital means of communications protections that promote innovation and support freedom of speech,” the lawmakers write in a letter led by Sen. Ed Markey(D-MA) and co-signed by eight Senate Democrats as well as Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Now that Democrats are about to take charge of the House in January, lawmakers plan to force some accountability on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. FCC oversight is a top priority for the House Commerce Committee in the upcoming session, according to committee members. “We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today,” said incoming-Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

The alliance between Democrats and Silicon Valley has buckled and bent amid revelations that platforms like Facebook and Twitter allowed hateful speech, Russian propaganda and conservative-leaning “fake news” to flourish. But those tensions burst into open warfare after revelations that Facebook executives had withheld evidence of Russian activity on the platform for far longer than previously disclosed, while employing a Republican-linked opposition research firm to discredit critics and the billionaire George Soros, a major Democratic Party patron.