Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) Chairman Tom Wheeler recently named 31 members to the FCC-Native Nations Broadband Task Force. These members represent 20 Tribal Nations and 11 FCC Bureaus/Offices. The Task Force, which comprises elected and appointed leaders from federally-recognized Tribal governments or governmental entities and senior staff from across the Commission, was established in March 2011. It is responsible for assisting in executing the Commission’s consultation policy, eliciting input from Tribal governments, ensuring that Tribal concerns are considered in all Commission proceedings related to broadband, developing additional recommendations for promoting broadband deployment and adoption on Tribal lands, and coordinating with Tribal Nations in their respective regions. Chairman Wheeler named Geoffrey Blackwell, Chief of the Commission’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy in the Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the federal co-chair of the Task Force. At its first meeting, the Tribal Nation representatives on the Task Force will elect a Tribal Nation Co-Chair.
