I’ve advocated for women and girls for my entire career — as an educator, through my 18 years as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives including three terms as speaker, as former chair of the NARAL-NH PAC Board of Directors, as former chair of Sexual Assault Support Service sand finally as president and CEO of the NH Women’s Foundation. When it comes to making policy that empowers women and girls, I know firsthand how critical it is that women are in the room where decisions are made and holding positions of power there.
That’s why President Biden’s recent decision to nominate Jessica Rosenworcel to permanent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair could not be timelier. Rosenworcel will be the first ever woman to serve as permanent chair, shattering a glass ceiling that’s been in place for far too long. She will continue to raise the important voices of women that have been overlooked in tech and telecom policy.
Jessica Rosenworcel recognizes that every issue is a gender issue. This includes the fight for universal broadband access, one of the most pressing challenges of modern life. Earlier this year, she shed light on the fact that nearly one-third of women have worried about paying for broadband during the pandemic. She rightfully pointed out the huge strain this puts on working mothers trying to both do their job from home and make sure their kids can learn remotely. Rosenworcel herself is a mother of two, giving her unique insight into these challenges and how to overcome them.
She has spent much of her career on the front lines of the fight for universal broadband access, ramping up her work even more during the COVID-19 pandemic that drove so many aspects of life online. In 2015 she coined the term “homework gap” to describe the inequalities driven by a lack of reliable internet access for millions of kids at home. During the pandemic, this impacted nearly 17 million children, disproportionately from poor, rural and minority communities.
In response, Rosenworcel led the creation of the $7 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, which gave federal funding to schools and libraries in low-income areas to pay for WiFi hotspots and tech devices to access the internet. This crucial funding was a godsend for working mothers across our state.
But Rosenworcel didn’t stop there. She also created the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) to give broadband discounts to four million families in need. In its first week, over one million Americans signed up for the program, demonstrating just how necessary it is.
Congress is now on the brink of passing the groundbreaking American Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that will dedicate $65 billion to be spent closing the digital divide for low-income and rural families. The FCC will be responsible for putting this funding into action and ensuring the success of programs like the Affordability Connectivity Benefit directly based on the EBB program Rosenworcel ran, which can help 15% of our state afford access to high-speed broadband. Now more than ever, we need Rosenworcel at the helm of the FCC to prioritize closing the digital divide for working families.
I’m proud that Sens. Shaheen and Hassan, both strong advocates for working Granite State families and women, are supporting Jessica Rosenworcel as well. They recognize just how important her confirmation is for making sure there’s a woman in the room who will be laser-focused on advancing public policy that lifts up women, whether it’s through expanding broadband access to low-income and rural Granite Staters, taking on scammers who use texts and phone calls to cheat consumers or rolling back net neutrality.
We only have a few more months to confirm Rosenworcel’s nomination or we risk an FCC run by Trump appointees who will obstruct our progress. The U.S. Senate must work to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel’s nomination as soon as possible.
(Terie Norelli is former speaker of the NH House of Representatives)