Closing the Digital Divide with Angelina Panettieri

This episode dives deep into a prominent local-federal issue that has touched every aspect of daily life: digital access. Reliable internet and accessible online platforms are no longer simply optional for thriving communities; they are essential. At the federal level, policies like the American Broadband Deployment Act aim to accelerate infrastructure expansion, while new web accessibility rules are shaping how governments design and deploy digital services to ensure no resident is left behind.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome back to Cityspeak. I am your host, Irma Esparza Diggs, Senior Executive with the National League of Cities. Cityspeak gives listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversations with government leaders and policy experts regarding the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Today, we are talking about a prominent local federal issue that has touched every aspect of digital life, and that's digital access. We know that reliable Internet and accessible online platforms are no longer simply optional for thriving communities. They are essential. At the federal level, policies like the American Broadband Deployment Act aim to accelerate infrastructure expansion while new web accessibility rules are shaping how governments design and deploy digital services to ensure that no resident is left behind. So, to help break down what it means for local governments and the constituents they served, I'm joined today by Angelina Paniteri, NLC's Legislative Director for Information Technology and Communications.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Sure. So I manage NLC's federal policy issues related to technology and telecommunications, which means that I lobby Congress and federal agencies on things like broadband access, infrastructure, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and also the local use of technology and broadband infrastructure by local governments and the way that they regulate it. And I think in terms of why it matters right now, a lot of these issues can get swept to the side by local leaders as maybe being a problem for the private sector or for their IT departments. But things like connectivity and the technology services that local governments use touch literally every single aspect of city government. And I think more and more cities realize that they have to have affordable, high-speed, reliable internet to attract and retain residents and businesses. And they have to be able to provide services digitally because that's what their residents are expecting nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Ah, thank you for that. And thank you for making it make sense for local leaders across the country, irregardless of the size of their community and whether they're urban or rural, large or small. Can you explain this in simple terms what the American Broadband Deployment Act is and what problems it's trying to solve for local communities?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Sure. So this bill is HR 2289 called the American Broadband Deployment Act. And I would actually say it causes a lot of problems for communities rather than solving them. So this bill is over a hundred pages long. There's only so deep I can go with that, but almost every single part of it is focused on preempting local government oversight and authority related to communications infrastructure. And that's everything from the wires that get strung on poles along the streets that are run through conduit underground, towers and poles that help support wireless connectivity, or cable franchises that govern traditional cable TV service in communities. And this bill would fundamentally change the law around a lot of important things related to local government oversight of those areas. Things like how long cities have to process permits for those projects, how much they can charge for permit fees or recurring fees for use of public rights of way by private companies, when they're allowed to deny an application, and for what reasons. And also it would limit the effectiveness of local franchise negotiations with big telecom companies. It would also create a bunch of new penalties for local governments, things like deemed granted remedies for overrunning those time limits, meaning that a permit is automatically granted if the city runs out of time. It would also remove permanently things like broadband service that is bundled with cable and telephone service from any local oversight or franchise negotiations, which is a huge limit for localities. And it's a pretty big handout to industry at a pretty significant cost to local governments. And the unfortunate thing is that it really would not make a major difference in closing the digital divide. But fortunately for us, this week we were able to mobilize our local leaders in opposition to the bill. It was scheduled to go to the House floor this week for a vote, but enough representatives heard from local officials with their concerns that HR 2289 was pulled from consideration for this week. But I would say we can't rest on our laurels. We have to keep pushing back against this narrative that if we just preempt local permitting processes and we just streamline past localities and micromanage how they're governing things, that this is some kind of silver bullet to get universal broadband access.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

That's amazing. And kudos to you for the work that you do as the chief advocate on this issue and mobilizing support to be able to get that bill pulled from the floor. Let me ask you you one key thing you said is this would preempt local governments, preemption and the challenges that if that bill were passed, it would have prevented essentially local decision making on where that infrastructure is deployed, how much they could charge, the timeline, the decision making. And so to put it plainly, preemption equals limiting local decision making.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Absolutely, yes. And it really is an unfunded mandate as well, because it's expecting local governments to do certain things without being able to charge what they see as reasonable compensation for it.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Awesome. Thank you so much for breaking it down to us. So let me ask you, what do you see as the biggest barriers that cities and towns are facing when it comes to expanding access to broadband infrastructure? I know our state municipal league partners talk a lot about preemption at the state level that their state legislative bodies are passing. Is that one of the things? And are there other barriers you see that the cities and towns face when it comes to actually expanding access?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yes, this is such an important question and something that I think we can't talk enough about because there's this idea that local government is a barrier to closing the digital divide. When in fact, I think if you asked any mayor or council member out there, they would say they want more and better and more affordable broadband for their residents, not less. So there are a few actual structural barriers. I think some of them will hopefully be addressed in the coming years by federal grants from the infrastructure law that will fund a lot of broadband infrastructure. But the first is just that most broadband is built by private companies. It's subject to market forces. So private companies are not going to invest in building infrastructure where they don't think that they will get a return on that investment and a sufficient profit. So in places where there's lower residential density, more distance between houses, if household incomes are lower and they don't think that they're going to be able to get a sufficient subscriber base at their retail rates, they may not want to invest there. Also, if they have to spend a lot of money to travel a great distance because a community is isolated, or if they are separated from other infrastructure by federal lands. Those are very expensive and time consuming to build on. And that is something that Congress is starting to work on, making it easier for companies to get through federal permitting processes for land owned by the Park Service or the Forest Service. And in addition to all of that, fiber optic cables have gotten really expensive and harder to get over the last year or so because of import restrictions and also because of the explosion in data center construction. So it is just more expensive and harder to build. But this is one of the reasons that we're starting to see more and more cities investing in broadband as a city utility or investing in public-private partnerships that let the city spend some of their own money to directly influence and create broadband infrastructure where it needs to go and not just where it's profitable. And you alluded to state laws. Some of the state laws that we see limit cities' ability to do that. And we're actually starting to see a trend away from that state preemption of municipal broadband networks. We started to see that uh during the pandemic when a lot of cities realized that they needed better broadband than they had and they were willing to spend for it. And states are starting to come around on that concept.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Wow, that's incredible. I um was just in Oklahoma. And in talking to the Oklahoma Municipal League, one of the things that they shared is that there hasn't been as much growth in their rural areas as they had hoped. And they see as one of the contributing factors is the fact that there hasn't been real investment in the state's broadband infrastructure. In fact, the state returned a significant amount of broadband funding back to the Feds because they were unable to get it done in time and utilize those funds in the timeline that was needed. Are you seeing that be the case, uh, depending on the states? Like it's it's how much the state prioritizes the investment in in broadband infrastructure, which is why you see more local communities taking that, making that investment themselves?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Yes and no. We've had some issues with the federal broadband grant program because of timing, largely. Uh the funds were not fully dispersed and projects weren't approved by the end of the previous administration. And it's not that unusual for incoming administrations to want to take a look at programs and maybe change how they're run or change different aspects of them. But what happened was that the agency responsible for administering this grant program withdrew the rules entirely, rewrote them, and then every state had to rewrite and resubmit their plans. And that both scared off some potential applicants from the grant process because they did not want to jump through another hoop, uh, but also meant that states changed how they were planning to allocate that money and actually had fewer locations that they were allowed to use it in because of changes in the rules.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Understood. So speaking of rules, uh I want to shift to web accessibility rules. It's it's what our members most recently asked about when attending our March Congressional City Conference here in Washington. What do uh the new Department of Justice requirements mean for cities in simple terms, in terms of web accessibility?

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yes. So by way of background, in 2024, the Department of Justice issued new rules stating that all state and local government websites, mobile apps, social media content, including all of those by public universities, public school systems, and special districts, have to comply with certain accessibility standards that are set by something called the Worldwide Web Consortium, which is an international standard setting body. And what that means is that going forward, local government websites and apps need to be usable for people using things like screen readers or other assistive technologies. And that can mean things like changing the format of a web page. It could mean changing the appearance, the colors of fonts, or it could mean changing the structure of content and ensuring little things like captions and descriptions of images are consistently in place. And that can sound simple, but it definitely is not, especially for cities that have thousands of web pages and thousands of PDFs posted online, or lots of third-party tools like data dashboards. And the good news is that this week we were successful in getting the compliance dates pushed back by one year. So that means for cities with populations of 50,000 people and over, their compliance deadline is going to be April 2027. And for those under 50,000, it'll be April 2028.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Wow, thank you so much. And it's uh it's great to hear about the impact of NLC's federal advocacy work in this space because it shows when you not only educate local leaders about what the potential changes are, given new legislation that could or may get passed, but also what the rules and regulations that guide federal programs would mean for their ability to meet these new standards, what that impact is, and having them be the ones to advocate and educate not just the federal agencies, but Congress as well, that is what makes the difference. Why is web accessibility such a crucial issue for local governments right now? Why is that a hot topic?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Well, first, I think it's important to be really clear that making sure that government is accessible to residents with disabilities is important to local government. Obviously, all of us want government and government services to be accessible to all people. And taking a step backwards to more in-person transactions or less digital services is not a good response. Because, like I said earlier, residents reasonably expect that they're going to be able to engage with their local government the same way that they do their bank or retailers, and increasingly with federal and state government agencies. So I think local governments really need to spend this extra year that we have managed to get getting their houses in order. Because we're going to keep working at NLC on getting clearer guidance from the Department of Justice. We're going to keep working on getting resources out to cities, but there are things that local governments can and should be doing already, and hopefully have been for a while. There's a few general things. First, cities should make sure that they understand all of the online content that they're responsible for. And what I'm hearing from people is this is more extensive than they realized because it covers things like websites, online portals for documents, applications, bill payments, social media posts, parking apps. This also includes things that are created and managed by third-party vendors on local government websites, like those data dashboard plugins or records databases. A lot of city councils use those sorts of systems to manage things like council minutes and recordings. And those are all things that the city is responsible for ultimately. And then they really need to make sure that they understand how accessible that content currently is. There are a lot of free and low-cost tools out there to get started, although a lot of communities are probably going to want to bring in outside assistance at some point and really need to be talking to all of their vendors. Cities also really need to get clear on what is and isn't covered by the rule. I've heard a lot of just well-intentioned misinformation out there. There are exemptions to the rule. And while a lot of communities are aiming to have all of their web content, both past and future, be fully compliant, most cities are going to have to prioritize and they should be focusing on what is actually covered and not what is exempt. And those exemptions are things like archived content that was posted before the compliance deadline. So those thousands of old PDFs, individualized password-protected content like utility bills. So if you're starting with that 10 years of old council meeting minutes, that is not a good way to prioritize. Cities should really be thinking about what content is most visible, what's most frequently updated, or what's most frequently accessed by their users. And that's a good place to start if you have limited resources. Because cities should also be thinking about how they can quickly and effectively address resident complaints or requests for alternative formats or fixes when those come in, because they will. Just like cities have been used to for years needing to be able to handle complaints or requests around things like physical accessibility, those processes need to now be expanded to digital services and online content. And if cities have a plan in place for their remediation, for their ongoing compliance, and for being responsive to residents when they do surface concerns, because nobody is ever going to be perfectly compliant, those are the things that help make cities a little less vulnerable as targets for abusive litigation, which is what we're ultimately trying to prevent here.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Right. Thank you so much, Angelina, for that. And I also will thank you in advance for all of the educational resources and programming that you and our colleagues here at NLC will develop to not just educate our members, local leaders from across the country on what these rule changes mean, but how do they effectively implement those changes and on what timeline? So thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for joining Cityspeak today. Our members will continue to receive our electronic newsletters that communicate what that programming is and just stay abreast of our communications to know what program is coming up that they can be a part of. It was great to learn more about how expanding broadband access and ensuring digital accessibility are essential tools for cities, towns, and villages to be able to utilize to serve their residents and spread and create economic opportunity for all. Thank you so much, Angelina, for your work that you do on behalf of our members and appreciate you talking with us today. Have a great day. Thank you.

NLC 18:58

Thanks for listening to City Speak with Clarence Anthony. If you like the show, let us know. Share this episode with your friends and make sure to subscribe. We're curious to hear what you think, what you want more of, and how we can improve. If you have feedback or an idea for a guest you'd like Clarence to sit down with, send us your thoughts at Cityspeak Podcast at nlc.org. Join us next month for a new episode. Like and subscribe here or wherever you get your podcast. See you next time.