by Bill Callahan | Jul 1, 2020 | Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the “Moving Forward Act” (HR 2), a $1.5 trillion infrastructure funding bill that includes $8.8 billion for a new “broadband benefit” program to help low-income households and recently laid-off consumers pay for...
by Bill Callahan | Jun 30, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
United States Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon yesterday introduced the “Emergency Broadband Connections Act”, which would create a new Emergency Benefit for Broadband Service to provide free or low-cost broadband service for low-income families as well as...
by Bill Callahan | Jun 24, 2020 | Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
A bill introduced today by Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes more than a billion dollars in funding for state and community digital inclusion initiatives, as well as a new federal broadband benefit that would contribute $50 a month to...
by Bill Callahan | Jun 19, 2020 | Digital Inclusion News, Measuring Inclusion, Policy Positions
NDIA has released a new white paper arguing that current federal policies which limit broadband expenditures to rural infrastructure deployment, while offering no help to millions of unconnected urban residents, are “structurally racist, discriminating against...
by Bill Callahan | May 26, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The three federal agencies that oversee U.S. banks and savings institutions have adopted special Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) guidelines for the COVID-19 emergency period which, among other things, allow regulated lenders to seek CRA credit for “Loans,...
by Bill Callahan | May 20, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal agency that oversees national banks and savings associations, has just added support for community digital inclusion programs to its official list of “qualified activities” that could help a regulated...
