White House 'Particularly Encouraged' to See Booker's Municipal Broadband Bill, Edelman Says
The White House is “pleased” and “particularly encouraged” to see Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., leading the charge on municipal broadband legislation, Senior Adviser for Technology and Economic Policy David Edelman said in a blog post Monday. That Community Broadband Act…
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legislation (S-240) would let Congress pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband networks, as President Barack Obama has asked the FCC to do. The Commerce Department has a “wealth” of new resources for those seeking information about the administration’s broadband efforts, Edelman said. The Broadband Opportunity Council will meet next month for the first time, “bringing together over a dozen agencies in the federal government with a single purpose: to slash unnecessary barriers that could keep companies from investing, entering new markets, or building fast broadband infrastructure,” he said. The Agriculture Department also has “officially opened its Community Connect program for the next round of loans, and eligible providers can begin applying today,” he added. Commerce’s BroadbandUSA initiative will hold a webinar Wednesday at 2 p.m. and a regional workshop Feb. 4 in Jackson, Mississippi, he said. Republicans control both chambers on Capitol Hill and have not typically favored pre-empting state laws on this front in the last year.