LAS VEGAS, January 12, 2024 – U.S. senators highlighted their tech policy priorities on artificial intelligence and broadband connectivity at CES on Friday.

Sens. Ben Luján, D-New Mexico, Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, and John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, sat on a panel moderated by Senator Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada.

Promise and perils of AI

The lawmakers highlighted their focus on mitigating the potential risks of implementing AI. 

Hickenlooper touted the AI Research, Innovation and Accountability Act, which he introduced in November with Luján and other members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

That law would require businesses deploying AI in relation to critical infrastructure operation, biometric data collection, criminal justice, and other “critical-impact” uses to submit risk assessments to the Commerce Department. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, housed in the department, would be tasked with developing standards for authenticating human and AI-generated content online.

“AI is everywhere,” Hickenlooper said. “And every application comes with incredible opportunity, but also remarkable risks.”

Connectivity

Luján and Rosen expressed support for recent legislation introduced to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program. The fund, which provides a $30 monthly internet subsidy to 23 million low-income households, is set to dry up in April 2024 without more money from Congress.

The ACP Extension Act would provide $7 billion to keep the program afloat through 2024. It was first stood up with $14 billion from the Infrastructure Act in late 2021. 

“There are a lot of us working together,” Luján said, to keep the program alive for “people across America who could not connect, not because they didn’t have a connection to their home or business, but because they couldn’t afford it.”

Lawmakers, advocates, the Biden administration, and industry groups have been calling for months for additional funding, but the bill faces an uncertain future as House Republicans look to cut back on domestic spending.

Luján also stressed the need to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction authority.

“I’m ashamed to say it’s lapsed, but we need to get this done,” he said.

The Commission’s authority to auction off and issue licenses for the commercial use of electromagnetic spectrum expired for the first time in March 2023 after Congress failed to renew it. A stopgap law permitting the agency to issue already purchased licenses passed in December, but efforts at blanket reauthorization have stalled.

WASHINGTON, September 11, 2023 – The White House on Monday announced the nomination of Basil Gooden for Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touted the nomination in a statement, saying that Gooden “is a widely-respected, accomplished champion for affordable housing, community advancement, and economic development. His public service career is informed by a lifelong commitment to agriculture and rural development.”

Gooden is the current director of state operations for rural development at USDA.

If confirmed for the position, Gooden would be responsible for overseeing the activities of the Rural Utilities Services, which encompasses the Water and Environment Programs, the Electric Program, and the Telecommunications Program, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural Americans through providing funds to deploy rural telecommunications infrastructure.

The administration may seek additional funding for broadband through the department. RUS Administrator Andy Berke, the former mayor of Chatanooga, Tenn., who also served as a Commerce Department official with the title, “special representative for broadband.”

Running USDA’s Rural Utilities Service Isn’t Andy Berke’s First Act in Broadband

If selected for the position, Gooden would fill the void left behind by Xochitl Torres Small, who resigned from the role and was later confirmed by the Senate as deputy secretary of agriculture this past July.

LAS VEGAS, January 6, 2023 – Sen. Ben Ray Lujan on Friday endorsed “oversight at every level” of executive agencies’ broadband policies and decried service providers that perpetuate digital inequities.

Lujan appeared before an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., to preview the tech-policy priorities of the 118th Congress.

Among Washington legislators, Senators had CES 2023 to themselves: Representatives from the House of Representatives were stuck in Washington participating on Friday in the 12th, 13th and 14th votes for House Speaker.

Congress allocated $65 billion to broadband projects in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the bulk of which, housed in the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, is yet to be disbursed. The IIJA funds are primarily for infrastructure, but billions are also available for digital equity and affordability projects.

Several federal legislators, including Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., have called for close supervision of Washington’s multitude of broadband-related programs. At CES on Friday, Warner argued that previous tranches of broadband funding have been poorly administered, and Lujan once again voiced concern that the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband map, whose data will be used to allocate BEAD funds, contains major inaccuracies.

Affordable, high-speed broadband is now a necessity, stated Warner. Lujan argued that policy must crafted to ensure all communities have access to connectivity.

“The [Federal Communications Commission] is working on some of the digital equity definitions right now…. I don’t want to see definitions that create loopholes that people can hide behind to not connect communities,” the New Mexico senator said, emphasizing the importance of “the digital literacy to be able take advantage of what this new connection means, so that people can take advantage of what I saw today [at CES].”

At a Senate hearing in December, Lujan grilled executives from industry trade associations over allegations of digital discrimination.