Veterans

All across the country, a group of connectivity experts teaches locals, old and young, about the benefits of getting online. These workers, called Digital Navigators, link people in the community with the resources and opportunities they don't know exist, like arranging online health appointments, applying for jobs, doing homework and making their businesses visible on the internet.

On March 27, 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the confirmation of Arielle Roth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. If confirmed as the Assistant Secretary and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Roth would oversee $48.2 billion in broadband infrastructure and adoption funding Congress allocated through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

WISPA – The Association for Broadband Without Boundaries submitted remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. WISPA offered several recommendations, including:

The Reason Foundation remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. The Foundation's comments focused on:

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association submitted remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. NRECA's comments focused on several rules, including transparency and reporting requirements. "Broadband providers that receive high-cost support are currently required not only to file detailed deployment data in the Universal Service Administrative Company High Cost Universal Broadband portal, but also to file coverage data twice each year in the Broadband Data Collection program.

The Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO), under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, developed the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan to complement broadband infrastructure programs already underway in the state, including the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program and the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Texas has not yet received its federal State Digital Equity Capacity funding and—on March 4, 2025—BDO paused all grants and contracts to implement the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has indicated he’ll make fundamental changes to the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. These changes, such as giving a stronger preference for satellite internet, could force states to restart their broadband grant programs. On April 3, a group of 115 state legislators from 28 states sent Secretary Lutnick a letter requesting that any BEAD changes be optional rather than mandatory.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Board Chairman and Trustee Austin Hirsch announced that longtime Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss will transition to Benton Senior Fellow and will be succeeded by the Institute’s current Vice President of Programs, Dr. Revati Prasad. Furniss will continue to manage the Institute’s programming in Illinois and advise Dr. Prasad for the rest of 2025. Dr. Prasad will assume leadership of the Benton Institute beginning May 1, 2025.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Broadband Policy and Development (BPD) Office was created in 2023 with a commitment to addressing the internet infrastructure challenges in CNMI. Under this commitment, the CNMI BPD Office assumed the responsibility of spearheading CNMI's efforts to secure federal support, like the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Digital Equity Capacity Grant, and coordinate the effective utilization of broadband funding for residents.

Reps Randy Feenstra (R-IA) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) introduced the Audio-Only Telehealth Access Act, which would make Medicare’s coverage of audio-only telehealth services permanent. The current waiver—which is set to expire on March 31, 2025—allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reimburse healthcare providers for patient evaluation, patient management, and behavioral health services over the phone.