House Lawmakers Creating Rural Broadband Caucus
House lawmakers are forming a bipartisan Rural Broadband Caucus. The members kickstarting the caucus are Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., co-chairs of the Commerce Committee’s rural telecom working group, and Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Kevin Cramer,…
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R-N.D. They circulated a letter to Capitol Hill colleagues Tuesday announcing the launch of the caucus on Feb. 3 during a 2 p.m. “broadband 101” briefing featuring Competitive Carriers Association Vice President Tim Donovan, CoBank Vice President Sarah Tyree, NTCA Senior Vice President Michael Romano and an unnamed representative from USTelecom. Pocan led the letter to colleagues, and it asked anyone interested in joining the caucus to contact Pocan legislative director Alicia Molt. “This briefing will cover the basic policy concerns regarding broadband deployment and discuss policy solutions to the digital divide existing in rural America,” the letter said. “Recently, the FCC updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. According to the FCC, using this updated benchmark, the 2015 report finds that 55 million Americans -- 17 percent of the population -- lack access to advanced broadband. Moreover, a significant digital divide remains between urban and rural America: Over half of all rural Americans lack access to 25/3 service.” The lawmakers say "all staff, interns, and offices" are welcome to attend. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has sought to regularly meet privately with Latta and Welch’s working group (see 1601070042).