The following is a recap of a presentation by Amy Huffman, Policy Director at NDIA, given to the Kansas City Coalition for Digital Inclusion on November 15th, 2024.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Traditionally, the FCC is led by a chair nominated by the incoming President. As such, it is likely that the current chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, will step off the commission and allow President-elect Trump to nominate a new chair for the FCC. In her place, the most likely choice for a new chair is current commissioner Brendan Carr (note: soon after this presentation both of these events took place: Rosenworcel announced her departure from the commission, and President-elect Trump announced he would nominate Carr to fill her place).
Commissioner Carr has made a number of statements in the past that indicate the direction he will take on several key issues facing the Commission, including:
- Digital Discrimination – In 2023 the FCC adopted rules allowing the FCC to investigate policies or practices that differentially impact consumers’ access to broadband internet access service based on their income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion or national origin. Commissioner Carr objected to these rules, arguing that they constitute government overreach that is unsupported by relevant statutes and inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent. Under Chairman Carr, these rules will likely be rolled back.
- Net Neutrality – Commissioner Carr has strongly objected to regulating telecommunications companies as common carriers under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. These net neutrality rules will likely be repealed under the next commission.
- Broadband Consumer Labels – This year internet service providers began complying with an FCC order to begin displaying broadband labels describing key facts about different internet offerings to consumers when shopping for internet plans. While it is unlikely that the requirement for ISPs to post these labels will be rolled back, there may be changes to the rules over how internet providers must display the labels on their website.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
The NTIA is responsible for administering the lion’s share of grant funds for broadband deployment (BEAD), and digital equity programming (DEA). For the DEA capacity grant program, the NTIA is expected to award the first round of grants, comprising about 60% of the state capacity grants and 80% of the national competitive grants, ahead of inauguration day. The remaining portion of funds for both grant programs are set to be awarded through future rounds of funding, with this process likely looking different due to the influence and priorities of a new administration.
Congress
The main impact of a new Congress on digital equity will be their decisions on whether to re-authorize the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), and whether to reform the Universal Service Fund (USF).
While the ACP subsidy is administered by the FCC, Congress is who ultimately has the power to decide whether or not it will be restarted. While the future of the ACP has been an ongoing topic of discussion in Congress since its conclusion in June, it is not yet clear whether this will be a priority for the current Congress in its lame duck session, or for the future Congress.
Congressional action will also be necessary to undertake any kind of reform of the USF, which funds federal connectivity programs like Lifeline and E-Rate. It is unlikely that any action on USF will be taken up before the new Congress is sworn in, but next year there may be new negotiations on how to change the USF’s structure given that its fee structure is reliant on a diminishing base of landline service customers. USF reform is one possible means of restarting the ACP, so these issues will likely intersect during negotiations. Discussions on modernizing the USF had been making progress until this past spring, when proposed legislation stalled. It is not yet clear how Congressional leadership may prioritize these efforts in the upcoming term.
State and Local
States will have a significant role in leading progress on broadband and digital inclusion efforts over the next several years owing to their control over funding allocated to states through the BEAD and DEA programs. Given the shift in priorities at the federal level, local organizations in the digital inclusion space may find it useful to shift their focus to collaborating with state and local actors to continue the work of the past several years.