Universal broadband access is a bipartisan opportunity
If you’re reading this, online or in print, odds are that you have broadband internet access.
And you’ve probably relied on it, even more than you used to, during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic — to attend meetings or classes on Zoom; to search for a vaccine appointment; to have groceries delivered or to binge-watch television on Netflix (Remember “Tiger King?”).
So you can understand why many Texans were heartened by the fact that Gov. Greg Abbott has declared expanding broadband access to all Texans an emergency item for this year’s legislative session, which began in January.
In his annual State of the State address Monday night, Abbott highlighted the crucial role that telemedicine has played in the statewide response to the new coronavirus.
“It’s convenient! It’s convenient for both the patient and the doctor,” Abbott said. “We should seize the opportunity this session to permanently expand telemedicine so that every Texan in every region of the state can benefit from it.”
To that end, he continued, we need to ensure access to highspeed internet for everyone in the state.
“From medicine to education to business, broadband access is not a luxury,” Abbott said. “It is an essential tool that must be available to all Texans.”
As things stand, it isn’t. A November 2020 report from the Governor’s Broadband Development Council — created by legislation in the 2019 session — found that some 930,000 Texans do not have broadband access at home. (“This is particularly problematic for those who need to attend school virtually, visit a doctor online, or work remotely, either due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors,” the report notes.)
The number who have access in theory but not in practice is even larger than that, according to data from the Census Bureau, which shows that Texans who
live in the south and west regions of the state are particularly underserved.
The problem is of particular concern to rural Texans, where residents are both more likely to lack access to broadband providers and more likely to have a need of the services that broadband allows one to access. But there are internet deserts in urban and suburban areas, as well. A 2018 report from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance found that Laredo and Brownsville were the “worst connected” cities in the entire country, as of 2017; both have also seen some of the highest COVID infection rates in the state.
“While some may see this as a rural issue, it is not. It is a Texas issue,” said state Rep. Angie Chen Button, a Republican from Richardson and longtime Texas Instruments executive who has been working to expand broadband access for several sessions. “It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same is true for our technology infrastructure.”
She has filed legislation — House Bill 1511 — which would create a connectivity office within the governor’s office, to be charged with, among other things, developing a statewide connectivity plan.
State Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Democrat who represents House District 135 in northwest Harris County, notes that the shift to remote learning, necessitated by the pandemic, has vivified the issue. Cy-Fair ISD trustees last year voted to spend up to $44 million for laptops and access to wireless hot spots so that all the students in the district could get online.
“It’s kind of a key to being able to function remotely for a lot of people,” Rosenthal told me. “It’s just part of modernizing our whole infrastructure. It’s an equity thing.”
A number of legislators, he added, had filed bills related to broadband access even before Abbott’s speech, and it’s an area where he sees the potential for action by the state.
“Who thinks it’s not a good idea to expand broadband access?” Rosenthal asked, slightly bemused.
And perhaps the most intriguing part of Abbott’s decision to list broadband access as an emergency item is that it creates the potential for lawmakers to take early action on a bipartisan — really, nonpartisan — public policy priority.
The “emergency item” designation means lawmakers can pass bills on the subject during the first 60 calendar days of the session — and that Republicans, most of whom are keen to stay in the good graces of the governor, have an incentive to do so.
That’s all the more true because Abbott’s other emergency items are less likely to elicit broad-based support. They are bail reform, COVID-related liability protections for businesses, “election integrity,” and preventing cities — well, we’re really talking about Austin — from “defunding” the police. (Austin officials did cut the police department budget last year, but the lion’s share of cuts were from shifting civilian functions to other agencies and establishing a “Reimagine Safety” fund).
Overall, Abbott’s State of the State address received mixed reviews, with many Democrats puzzled by the fact that the governor didn’t list COVID-19 recovery, overall, as an emergency item.
“While we agree that improving broadband access and expanding telemedicine are laudable goals, there was more bad than good in the governor’s remarks,” said Manuel Grajeda, Texas strategist for UnidosUS, the nationwide Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization previously known as the National Council of La Raza, in a statement. “Nearly 40,000 Texans have died from the coronavirus, a disproportionate amount of them being Black and Hispanic.”
That’s true, and recovery from the pandemic is an overarching issue that should be on the minds of all legislators.
But tackling the expansion of broadband to all Texans as part of that response is an area where progress is indeed possible — and this year, to see such progress from our state government would be welcome.