congressional_record: CREC-2025-05-06-pt1-PgS2770-5
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CREC-2025-05-06-pt1-PgS2770-5 | 2025-05-06 | 119 | 1 | PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION RELATING TO "ADDRESSING THE HOMEWORK GAP... | SENATE | SENATE | ALLOTHER | S2770 | S2772 | [{"name": "Katie Boyd Britt", "role": "speaking"}, {"name": "Richard Blumenthal", "role": "speaking"}, {"name": "Brian Schatz", "role": "speaking"}] | [{"congress": "119", "type": "SJRES", "number": "7"}, {"congress": "119", "type": "SJRES", "number": "7"}, {"congress": "119", "type": "S", "number": "1630"}] | 171 Cong. Rec. S2770 | Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 75 (Tuesday, May 6, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 6, 2025)] [Senate] [Pages S2770-S2772] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION RELATING TO ``ADDRESSING THE HOMEWORK GAP THROUGH THE E-RATE PROGRAM'' The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The clerk will report the joint resolution by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 7) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to ``Addressing the Homework Gap Through the E-Rate Program''. [[Page S2771]] The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama. (The remarks of Mrs. Britt pertaining to the introduction of S. 1630 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'') Mrs. BRITT. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut. S.J. Res. 7 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am here to speak against S.J. Res. 7. This resolution would prevent millions of students, educators, and families from getting online--literally from enjoying the vast benefits and resources of the online world. Today, students and educators are dependent on broadband to learn and teach, to communicate with each other, to establish relationships and communities. Digital education has allowed for more flexible learning opportunities for all of us, whatever our ages, but most specifically, for students doing their homework, doing lectures, engaging in discussions, and so much more--all of it online. It is a different world, and now S.J. Res. 7 threatens to cut off and constrict that world. The internet can be a tremendous educational resource, opening new doors for curious students, and digital literacy skills are fundamental to succeeding in this digital economy, but that economy also creates a new system of haves and have-nots. In education, that divide is called the homework gap. It is a fundamental question of equity and fairness to close that gap. Studies have shown that without broadband at home, people earn lower grades than their connected classmates--no secret as to why. It is a resource that enables better learning and more achievement. That learning loss sets them back in career prospects and other opportunities. It sets them back for a lifetime, potentially. We saw the impact of the homework gap during COVID, when students were forced to take classes and exams from the parking lots of McDonald's. Literally, some of us saw students in those so-called hotspots, away from their homes, because it was the only way they could access their homework. Now, to combat that homework gap, Congress established a fund in 2021 for schools and libraries to loan Wi-Fi hotspots to students and educators. The program was an enormous success, ensuring nearly 18 million students at over 10,000 schools and libraries could get online. In Connecticut, that Federal support, in addition to State funding, was wildly successful to our closing the homework gap. We made sure that every single student had access to a laptop and to high-speed broadband. I am so proud of everyone in Connecticut who was responsible for this program of combining Federal and State resources in the best way; but, unfortunately, Federal funds ran out. Rather than leave students behind, the Federal Communications Commission issued a rule last summer that would allow schools to continue providing Wi-Fi hotspots under its E-Rate program. The E-Rate program exists to help schools and libraries provide affordable internet access; so that was a natural step for the FCC last summer. In Connecticut, funds from the E-Rate hotspot rule are supporting hotspot lending programs in Hamden, Norwalk, and at countless other libraries. I have visited them. I have seen the faces of educators and students excited about this enormous potential that brings together communities, frankly, from all different political parties. There is nothing partisan about this program, but, today, my Republican colleagues are trying to cut off those students in Hamden, Norwalk, and elsewhere in Connecticut and millions and millions of their peers all around the country. This resolution would nullify the FCC's rule that allows schools and libraries participating to join Wi- Fi hotspots to students. I have to ask, Really? Are schools and teachers crying out to repeal this rule? Really? No, they are not. How does this proposal make any sense for them or for families? for the parents? for the community? It makes no sense. This resolution would undo, in fact, all of the hard work in closing the digital divide in States like Connecticut, where people have devoted lives and careers to helping students close that homework gap and do better. It will renew and exacerbate those inequalities of access for rural and low-income communities. It will set back millions of students in the name of--what? In the name of what? What is the rationale? There is none. It is an embarrassment. It is a disaster. It is a self-inflicted wound that we can avoid here on the floor of the U.S. Senate. I want to remind everyone here that once we vote in favor of this rule, we can't go back, literally. You all know the rules. We can't go back. The FCC may not adopt a similar rule in the future. This is an irreversible, self-inflicted wound. So I urge my colleagues to reject this misguided, wrong-headed resolution. It would be a disgrace if we deprive those students and their families of this vast resource, of literally life-changing access to a really necessary service that helps them not just now but throughout their futures. We ought to expand internet access, not constrict it. We ought to be enhancing it, not cutting it off. And this effort is in the name of what? It makes no sense except that it exemplifies some of the cruelty and meanness and stupidity of the Elon Musk approach to public service and public access and fairness in our society. I urge my colleagues to take the positive step--and it would be a positive step--of continuing this enormously important program in the name of educational future, tomorrow and in the days afterward, for our students in Connecticut and around the country. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Curtis). The Senator from Hawaii. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Week Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, this week is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Week, and it is a sobering reminder of both the breathtaking scale of this tragedy that has plagued Native communities for generations and how far we still have to go to bring justice and healing to the victims and families affected by it. This crisis is likely out of view for most Americans, but it stares us in the face. Murder is the third leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, which is 10 times the national average--10 times the national average. American Indians and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely to experience violent crimes, including rape and sexual assault, than any other group of people in the United States. In Hawaii, 64 percent of human trafficking survivors are Native Hawaiian. Even so, we still don't know the true extent of the crisis because for so long, the Federal Government failed to take it seriously. It was more convenient to pretend as if it didn't exist than to dedicate Federal resources to investigating the crimes and prosecuting those responsible. As a result, in far too many instances, justice has not been served and families have not been able to begin the process of healing. To experience the tragedy of a loved one gone or a neighbor suddenly found dead is horrific in and of itself. But worse, these communities often have to shoulder the burden of finding answers all by themselves while they are grieving. For that to happen anywhere else or to anyone else, we would be rightly outraged. The fact that it is happening to Native Americans in cities like Anchorage or Albuquerque, on remote reservations, and on Hawaiian homelands should not change our outrage. After decades of underinvestment, Congress finally took steps to address this crisis when we reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act in 2022. As chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs at the time, I was proud to work with Native leaders and advocates and especially my good friend the vice chair at the time, Lisa Murkowski, to restore Tribal jurisdiction for certain violent crimes and increase Federal resources to keep Native families safe. No one bill or action is going to remedy generations of neglect and injustice, but it was an important step forward, along with other laws, in turning the tide on this shameful and longstanding problem. There remains a lot of work to be done to ensure that Native people feel safe in their homes and in their communities. And it is a priority that we continue to advance on the Indian Affairs Committee with the chairman, [[Page S2772]] Lisa Murkowski, and many others. But today we remember the many victims lost to this devastating epidemic of violence and recommit ourselves to helping to find justice and healing for all of those affected. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho. ____________________ |