Postcard to Welcome FCC Chair Tom Wheeler

Trump Federal Communication Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has announced vague potential changes to the FCC’s E-Rate program that could harm program funding, effectiveness, and the overarching goal of bringing affordable Internet access to long-neglected schools and rural communities trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide. The reforms come as Carr also looks to make changes to the FCC’s broadband mapping efforts, something consumer groups say could harm the government’s ability to measure which communities need improved, affordable access, or suffer from a pronounced lack of broadband competition.

Consumer and civil rights groups last week told the Trump administration that their proposed “reforms” of the FCC’s Lifeline program would undermine efforts to ensure equitable, affordable access to the internet for all Americans, and are based on lies about immigrant fraud. Joint comments to the FCC filed this month (first spotted by Light Reading) by consumer groups including Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) added to the chorus of criticism of the proposed changes, pointing out that the biggest abusers of the Lifeline program aren’t immigrants and poor minorities, but private companies.

In yet another bruising blow in the fight to ensure equitable access to high-speed Internet service, an appeals court struck down federal rules this week that aimed to combat digital redlining. Though the FCC had not exercised its anti-digital discrimination authority in a single instance, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that the FCC had exceeded its authority by even having a rule that threatened to impose liability on ISPs for “disparate impact,” instead of relying on instances of “disparate treatment.”

Congressmembers Rob Menendez, Doris Matsui (CA-07), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), and Troy Carter, Sr. (LA-02) have introduced new legislation that would compel the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to re-establish the Communications Equity and Diversity Council. The Council had operated in some capacity since 2003 under multiple partisan administrations to make the communications sector more equitable and reduce digital discrimination, until FCC Chair Brendan Carr arbitrarily disbanded it in January 2025.

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it sought to modernize regulatory structures for the digital age. Three decades later, architects of the ‘96 Act say it achieved many of those goals, but numerous legal challenges reshaped how key provisions were implemented.

In late 2024 the Biden FCC implemented a new rule requiring that broadband providers include a “nutrition label for broadband", but a lack of enforcement made their impact lukewarm, and now the new FCC is looking to water down their effectiveness even more.