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, December 19, 2023 – House Republicans are accusing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of regulating broadband pricing as part of its $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. 

Their concerns, outlined in a letter to NTIA head Alan Davidson Friday, center on rules requiring states — the entities ultimately awarding grants under the program — to ensure providers set up affordable plans for low-income households to get connected on BEAD-funded infrastructure. States are afforded flexibility in how they do this, but the NTIA has expressed a preference for setting a specific price point or a formula that will be used to calculate the low-cost plan.

Republican lawmakers said in the letter that approving state BEAD plans with required pricing amounts to rate regulation by the NTIA, something the agency is forbidden from doing by the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, which spawned the BEAD program.

“As we have said before, NTIA’s approval of state plans that include rate regulation is NTIA regulating rates in violation of the IIJA,” the letter reads.

All 16 Republican members of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee signed the letter, including Communications Subcommittee Chair Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington. The two signed another letter on Friday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel saying her claims about the effectiveness of the Affordable Connectivity Program, a monthly broadband subsidy for low-income households, were overstated.

The issue of alleged rate regulation came up during Davidson’s testimony to the subcommittee at an oversight hearing on December 5. Asked repeatedly if the NTIA would regulate rates to ensure affordability requirements are met, Davidson emphasized the agency would not be handing down price requirements.

“We are not setting a price at the NTIA. We are not setting a national price for broadband,” he said at the hearing.

Davidson did not forestall the agency approving state plans to mandate rates or set price caps, which was not enough for House Republicans.

“If we’re going to spend billions of dollars of federal money, and people are going to take that money,” Davidson said, “it’s not unreasonable to ask them to be careful about affordability when they’re doing so.”

The NTIA has only officially approved one proposal for selecting BEAD grant recipients so far: Louisiana’s. That document sets the state’s low-cost option at $30 – set to match the subsidy provided by the ACP – but gives applicants room to raise that up to $65 if necessary for the financial sustainability of a project.

Virginia’s plan requiring providers to submit their own low-cost plans as part of the application process drew some pushback from the agency. The NTIA asked the state to set up more concrete requirements around the low-cost provision, citing a need to know how consumers would be affected before approving the plan.

The state, citing the same concerns as Republican lawmakers, is asking NTIA to approve its plan as is.

WASHINGTON, December 18, 2023 – Congressional Republicans expressed skepticism on the Affordable Connectivity Program in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission chairwoman on Friday.

The ACP, set up with a $14 billion allocation from the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, provides a $30 monthly internet subsidy to more than 22 million low-income households. That money is set to dry up as early as April 2024.

The impending shortfall has led to calls from advocacy groups, lawmakers, and broadband providers for Congress to renew the program. They say the fund is an important tool in closing the digital divide – the gap in economic opportunity between areas with and without high-speed internet access – and for ensuring people can access new infrastructure set to be funded by the federal government’s $42.5 billion broadband expansion effort.  

President Joe Biden asked Congress in October for $6 billion to keep the fund afloat through 2024. But Republican leaders in the House and Senate commerce committees criticized the administration’s public spending and were doubtful about the ACP’s effectiveness in their letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

Their concerns centered around the number of ACP recipients who had no broadband access prior to enrolling. Rosenworcel testified at a House oversight hearing in November that FCC surveys put the number at 20 to 22 percent of the program’s participating households, but she noted that the agency has had difficulty pinning down the exact figure because providers are not required to collect that information when someone enrolls.

Sens. John Thune, R-South Dakota, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, pointed to that number as evidence the program is “wasteful” by subsidizing broadband for low-income households that were able to get online previously. 

The lawmakers also pushed back on Rosenworcel’s testimony at the same hearing that the program’s participants would be forced offline if it were not to be refunded and asked the agency to provide ACP enrollment data it had committed to make public.

“Unfortunately, your testimony pushes ‘facts’ about the ACP that are deeply misleading and have the potential to exacerbate the fiscal crisis without producing meaningful benefits to the American consumer,” they wrote.