Panel Examines Federal Broadband Programs

On November 20, the Office of Advocacy’s Assistant Chief Counsel Cheryl Johns moderated a luncheon
panel for the Rainbow Push Coalition’s Annual Telecommunications Symposium. The symposium featured several prominent speakers, including Federal Communications Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell, and Mignon Clyburn; the administrator for the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), Jonathan Adelstein; and the deputy assistant secretary for communications and information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Anna Gomez.
The panelists discussed the latest round of funding for broadband programs undertaken by both the NTIA and RUS, as well as what these agencies have done to further include socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses in these broadband projects.