Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, CWA Urge FCC to Act

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Communications Workers of America urged the FCC to move ahead on the key tenets of the National Broadband Plan.

The LCCR letter was signed by a coalition of national civil rights, privacy, and consumer organizations, among them: the American Association of People with Disabilities, ACLU, the Benton Foundation, Consumer Action, the National Urban League, the NAACP, and the National Consumers League. In total the letter had more than a dozen signatories from a variety of fields, unified in the goal of broadband expansion.

The letter prompts the FCC to continue with the key objectives outlined by the National Broadband Plan, and clarify the legal framework through which it achieves its regulatory aims. The coalition stressed the importance of:

• Expanding the Universal Service Fund to include broadband;
• Assuring transparency in billing;
• Protecting consumers' privacy online; and,
• Making the Internet accessible for those with disabilities.

Despite challenges to the National Broadband Plan implementation, the coalition stresses the importance of commitment to established goals:

"Regardless of how organizations view net neutrality, the Commission's authority to achieve many objectives critical to the civil rights community must be affirmed."

Civil Rights, Privacy, and Consumer Organizations Call on the FCC to Adopt Key Goals of National Broadband Plan