FCC DIGS IN ON BROADBAND 'NUTRITION' — Today the FCC will hold what the agency is saying will be the first in a series of public hearings on broadband "nutrition labels," something consumer advocates have sought for more than a decade. Similar to federal food-labeling requirements, a broadband label requirement would force telecom providers to give prospective customers specifics about the speed, cost and other aspects of internet service before they sign up. The FCC voted in late January to start the rulemaking process, and last year's bipartisan infrastructure law (H.R. 3684) asks the commission to finalize rules for broadband labels by November. — Take your places: FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and her colleagues will need to decide how much information internet service providers will be required to include on these labels, and in what format. That question has become another front for tensions between progressive tech advocates and the telecom industry. Greg Guice, the government affairs director at progressive tech group Public Knowledge,plans to testify today that the information provided by ISPs on their broadband offerings is "inconsistent" and limits potential customers' ability to understand whether a plan fits their specific needs or compare plans between providers. He wants the FCC to require clearly-displayed labels that give real-world examples of a plan's speed of service, consistent definitions of "typical" speed, latency and packet-loss data and the up-front cost of broadband, even when bundled with other services. On the other side is Diana Eisner, the head of policy and advocacy at telecom trade group USTelecom. While Eisner won't argue in her testimony against the label requirements in general, she plans to say that providers already provide customers with "significant information." And she'll also argue that required labels should be "simple to read and not chock full of highly technical information that will only confuse consumers." TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZATION FUND NEEDS MORE FUNDS: Last year's passage of the American Rescue Plan Act ( H.R. 1319) transformed the General Services Administration's Technology Modernization Fund from a backwater to a fast-growing effort juggling well over five times its previous budget. It announced its latest project — upgrading privacy protections and consumer-facing systems at the Selective Service and the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission — just this week. Federal agencies always want more money from Congress. But Raylene Yung, the new head of the TMF, told MT in an interview Thursday that the extra $1 billion injected into the fund last year won't be enough to manage the flood of requests it's since received from federal agencies seeking to upgrade their IT systems. She said those proposals, taken together, will require nearly three times as much to execute. And witheven the extra $250 million for the TMF included in the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) stalled (likely for good), Yung said she's working to convince Congress more money is needed. — Scratching the surface: Before last year's $1 billion surge in funding, the TMF was operating on one $175 million grant from Congress, maintained a "scrappy" team that hovered between three and four people, had reviewed only a few dozen agency proposals and had made just 11 investments. But the TMF's mandate has ballooned significantly over the past few months. Yung joined in September, following a relatively short stint at thenonprofit U.S. Digital Response (which she co-founded) and longer stays at Facebook and online payment company Stripe. The TMF's staff has grown to between 15 and 20 people, and requests for funding and technical assistance have skyrocketed. Yung said they've received more than 130 proposals worth about $2.5 billion from more than 40 federal agencies. "That was only from several months," Yung said. Those proposals, she said, are only "scratching the surface" when it comes to the effort needed to modernize federal IT systems. — Convincing Capitol Hill: With Build Back Better on death's door, Yung said she's providing regular updates to lawmakers about the TMF's latest efforts and highlighting trends and patterns found in the requests received from agencies. Yung declined to say whether she believes there's still a viable legislative vehicle for an additional infusion of TMF dollars this cycle. — About that GAO report: Yung also sought to downplay recent findings from the Government Accountability Office that some TMF projects lack plans to recover project operating expenses, an expectation of the program. Yung said GAO's extended investigation timelines means things have often changed by the time those reports are released, and said she's interested in measuring the impact of projects beyond their financial benefits.
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