The congressional debate, combined with technological change and mounting competition, are raising new questions about what telecommunications services should be guaranteed for all Americans and who should pay for them. For the Clinton administration, the new year has brought renewed budget pressures. Facing potentially steep reductions in its program to finance innovative, public uses of the information infrastructure, it is continuing its effort to find low-cost ways to create public spaces in the emerging information superhighway. The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing its rules governing children's educational programming on television, while considering issues ranging from what rules will govern the telephone companies' video dial tone systems to what terms to impose when granting broadcasters additional spectrum for advanced television or other services. In addition, the FCC is exploring ways to connect the nation's classrooms to the information superhighway.
State governments appear to have strengthened their hand since last year.
The Senate telecommunications bill would grant them a considerably larger role in laying out the information superhighway than federal lawmakers contemplated last year. All these developments underscore the importance for the nonprofit sector of remaining engaged, both in the federal and state policy arenas and in the marketplace as producers and users of the information that flows over the emerging infrastructure. The experience of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting may be instructive. Despite Republicans' vows last year to eliminate its federal support, public broadcasting has demonstrated that it has substantial public backing.