3/17/21 Bowman-Cleaver Bill Would Help Extend Broadband to Public Housing

Only days ago, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reintroduced a bill that would put more than $90 billion toward expanding broadband infrastructure into areas that need it.

Yesterday, Reps Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) introduced a bill that would help democratize the web even more: It would require the Treasury, USDA, and HUD to rework the utilities "allowance" now granted to the residents of public and subsidized housing so that it includes broadband. Says Bowman, "We must rethink broadband as a basic utility alongside gas, electric, and water.”

This is certainly so, although implementation last year, before the pandemic started, would have been a lot better. Remote schooling has been difficult if not impossible for impoverished families, even families that had a computer already. Most kids have lost a year's worth of schooling.

But let's not be too optimistic. A report on the nation's public housing, published this week in the Houston Chronicle, shows that public-housing residents in Kansas, Florida, and Texas are still fighting, and failing, to get slow-moving management to conduct basic repairs, such as fixing air conditioners and ceilings, and mold remediation (we'll post a link). As recent media articles have noted, new HUD chief Martha Fudge has her work cut out for her.

At least this bill will help, not hurt, as HUD tackles housing troubles across the country.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/543545-bowman-cleaver-introduce-legislation-to-expand-affordable-broadband-access-to?fbclid=IwAR2oygbU2mbO0pT28RQ-Dk2ArV8CrWKHOMb8wvN8vfZmYt69kf6fjxdGLDQ

Public housing:  https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Living-Hell-how-government-failed-galveston-homes-16003685.php?fbclid=IwAR3DdLLsY5qmoSu8Jti9687vUvbjqMyk7dFpTOqnUIHQdLY_69xVw5jqs3E