House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will head up a press conference Wednesday (April 1) on Democrats' infrastructure priorities for the the next coronavirus aid package.
Broadband will almost certainly be part of that if House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) has anything to do with it. Pallone will join with Pelosi, Majority whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) at the press conference.
Pallone is particularly concerned with rural broadband access, which has become a big issue now that remote work and education and healthcare are the new normal.
The CARES Act, the $2 trillion aid package that was the third virus aid bill, included $200 million for telehealth. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signaled this week that the FCC would be asking for money for distance learning in this latest package, as it did unsuccessfully for the CARES Act.
