Newly released legislative text of the Senate’s $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan – now titled the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – explains that the bill proposes to spend $65 billion on broadband-related items, headlined by $42.45 billion in funding for a Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. […]

While the announced framework for the bipartisan infrastructure plan agreed to last month includes $65 billion for broadband infrastructure deployment, Republican senators on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee are urging House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other negotiators to pull the broadband portion of legislation from the compromise agreement, and instead try to get it approved as a separate piece of legislation under normal rules. […]

On April 17, a group of senators introduced the Digital Equity Act of 2019 that aims to fund state and local projects to help narrow the “digital divide” by promoting wider access to communications technologies. […]