As more and more bipartisan technology-directed spending gains traction in Congress, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee held a legislative hearing focused on security and innovation in various telecommunications spending.
Expert witnesses accompanied lawmakers to Tuesday’s hearing on the importance of closing the virtual gap with widespread broadband across the country.
“We continue the committee’s long-standing work within this subcommittee to make sure our nation’s communications network jobs are stable, secure and reliable,” said committee chair Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N. J. mentioned. “This committee has a long cultura. de bipartisan collaboration to lay the groundwork for technological innovation in this country. “
There were five pending laws in question, adding the Spectrum Management Simplification, Reallocation and Transfer Act, or SMART Act, and the U. S. Extension Spectrum Auction Leadership Act of 2022.
While equitable broadband access was a recurring point of discussion at the hearing, several witnesses discussed the critical role broadband plays in public health and safety. Thomas Kadri, a law professor at the University of Georgia, highlighted the higher volume of domestic violence reports that count on connectivity.
“Digital abuse is on the rise,” Kadri said in testimony about the hidden risks of virtual abuse in the family circle’s plans. In reports of virtual abuse between 2015 and 2018.
Another witness, Mark Gibson, regulatory official at the OnGo Alliance, added that high-speed internet access and 5G broadband has helped rural Americans stay in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gibson in particular referred to the importance of implementing the technology of his citizen Broadband Radio Service, or CBRS, organization across the country.
“[Broadband] implements all telecommunications ranges, including
support for COVID distance learning, enabling COVID triage hospitals,
helping poorly connected farmers in a different way to achieve 5G connectivity, supporting
automating production and helping to connect the disparate corners of our chain,” he said.
Gibson used the deployment of CBRS as an example of why the subcommittee deserves the SMART Act.
Expanding broadband connectivity is a major goal of the Biden administration’s agenda. Last February, the Commerce Department delegated more than $277 million in federal assistance to states for broadband infrastructure projects.
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