FCC has funds for rural broadband, but isn’t sure where to spend it
WASHINGTON — Ever since Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, was first elected to the House in 2006, he has sought to ensure that Iowans and other rural Americans can access the internet.
But Loebsack, who is set to retire at the end of the 116th Congress, remains frustrated that the federal government still lacks accurate data showing where Americans can get a signal — and where they can’t.
“For years, it has been evident and clear to this committee, the stakeholders, and indeed, the Federal Communications Commission, that the maps have been bad,” Loebsack said at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Sept. 17.
“All of you recognize that, all of you admit that,” Loebsack told the quintet of FCC commissioners testifying before the House panel. “And yet we still haven’t fixed the maps. It’s kind of like when they say, ‘Just wear the damn mask.’ Let’s just fix the damn maps, right?”
But how to best go about correcting the maps is disputed. And despite cooperation between Democrats and Republicans designed to force the FCC to fix them, sniping over who bears the responsibility for the persisting inaccuracies is a matter of partisan debate.
At the hearing, Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai blamed Congress, which he claimed has hamstrung the agency’s ability to fix the maps by withholding the necessary funding even though the agency approved a plan to fix the maps last year.
But Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel blamed Pai.
“We just haven’t made enough progress,” said Rosenworcel, who is viewed as occupying pole position for Pai’s job if former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, wins the November election. “We’ve put it off for another day. We keep on claiming that we need additional funds, that we need additional time. It’s just not good enough.”
Brendan Carr and Michael O’Rielly, Pai’s fellow Republican commissioners, acknowledged issues with the maps but defended efforts to correct them. Pai has relied on the maps to assert that his efforts to reduce regulations on internet service providers has helped reduce the number of unconnected Americans, even when that data has proven inaccurate because providers submitted faulty data.