D.C. Memo: Final Senate Vote Expected Thursday on Voiding Biden's Wi-Fi Hotspots
◾ Report: Unserved BEAD Locations Plunge ◾ WOW! Down 4,500 B'band Subs ◾ Levin: Simington's 30% Cap ‘a Stretch’ ◾ Cammack Aims at App Stores ◾ Comcast Goes with Versant ◾ Comcast Losing Fitzmaurice
🔹Advisory: Policyband will not publish Thursday🔹
Senate: In a key procedural step yesterday, the Senate voted 53-47 to take up a resolution designed to nullify Biden-era FCC rules that tapped into federal funds to pay for Wi-Fi hotspots for use away from school and library buildings. “The problems with this regulation are myriad,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the Senate floor before the vote. “It is, as I said, unlawful – it violates the Communications Act, which clearly limits the use of the funds in question to classrooms and libraries.” Thune – who held on to moderate Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) – expects a vote on final passage on Thursday, according to Senate aides. The FCC under then-FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel decided last July to dip into the $2.6 billion E-Rate program to support the spread of Wi-Fi hotspots to support remote learning under a legally evolving understanding of universal access to the Internet. “The Communications Act clearly supports this approach,” Rosenworcel said in a statement of policy that was opposed by then-FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington – Republicans who argued Rosenworcel had strayed from the plain meaning of the law. Before the Senate vote, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) issued a statement defending Rosenworcel’s approach. “Repealing the FCC’s expansion of the E-Rate program is a cruel and shortsighted decision that will widen the digital divide and rob kids of the tools they need to succeed. For millions of students — especially in low-income, rural, and underserved communities — Wi-Fi hotspots are lifelines to learning,” Markey said. (More after paywall.)
