Jim Baller Quoted in ARS Technica Article

Keller and Heckman Partner Jim Baller was quoted in the ARS Technica article, “House Republicans Proposed Nationwide Ban on Municipal Broadband Networks.” The article notes how House Republicans have unveiled their plan for boosting broadband connectivity and competition, with one of the key aspects being prohibiting states and cities from building their own networks. 

Republicans call it the CONNECT Act, for ‘Communities Overregulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today.’ The bill would promote competition by limiting government-run broadband networks throughout the country and encourage private investment. Jim pointed out that Republicans in Congress are taking the opposite approach as Republicans in the Arkansas State Legislature. 

“In the face of compelling pandemic-driven evidence that affordable broadband Internet access is essential to modern life, that tens of millions of Americans are being left behind, and that an emergency requiring immediate action exists, five enlightened Arkansas Republicans recently persuaded their overwhelmingly Republican legislature to vote unanimously to give local governments significant new authority to provide or support the provision of broadband Internet access. Now, taking exactly the opposite approach in the US Congress, the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have just introduced a bill that would all but extinguish public broadband initiatives and public-private broadband partnerships nationwide. That's utterly absurd,” he said. 

To read the full article, please click here.