I rarely write about politics, but it’s hard not to think that the blue wave election on November 3 will result in some changes in broadband policy and programs.

Of course, there is a chance that there will be little or no change in the short run. The new Congress might get so wrapped up in other issues that broadband won’t make it to the top of their pile. It’s also possible that the Trump administration and agencies will dig their heels in and fight everything proposed by the new Democratic majority and might pretend the election never occurred. I certainly don’t have any crystal ball when it comes to predicting Congress and the White House.

But there are some areas where a new Congress could change the trajectory of various broadband issues. This list is purely my speculation, but these all seem more possible than just a few weeks ago.

USF Reform. There was already a bipartisan, bicameral congressional working group examining ideas for modernizing and stabilizing the Universal Service Fund. We don’t know precisely what this group has been discussing. We can guess that they have been looking at possibly changing some of the USF programs. But their main stated purpose has been to look at the stability of the USF, and that means considering a new funding mechanism to replace the badly outdated fees based on interstate telephone traffic.

It’s also possible that the group has been discussing changes to specific programs. It seems likely to me that a new Congress might take a harder look at beefing up the Lifeline program. There are a lot of people in the industry hoping for an increase in the monthly $9.25 subsidy to make it more useful and more in line with the success we saw in the short-lived ACP funding.

Fix the USAC Issue. Congress could easily solve the outcome of the recent court case where the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC never had the authority to create USAC. A very short piece of legislation could solve the issue by giving the FCC the needed specific authority.

BEAD Non-Deployment Funds. There is huge support from every state for NTIA to disperse the $22 billion of BEAD non-deployment funds as was intended by the BEAD legislation. In fact, many red states are among the loudest yelling for these funds. The new majority, and perhaps a bipartisan majority, could put a lot of pressure on NTIA to make this happen. This is the kind of requirement that could be added to a budget reconciliation bill or another piece of legislation. States also want discretion on how to use the funds and don’t want NTIA dictating only a narrow list of the ways the money can be used. States are in favor of the uses described in the original legislation.

Digital Equity Grants. While funding for these grants is slowly moving forward again as part of a court settlement between NTIA and NDIA, Congress could speed this up and require it to happen quickly. There are still a lot of folks I know who are leery that NTIA will actually pull the trigger on these grants, even though they have promised some early steps (that are already late). Congress could make this happen.

Various Other Issues. A new Congress could resolve other issues like the fight that is brewing between California and NTIA over freeing BEAD grant funding to the state. NTIA wants California to preempt its own laws on net neutrality as a condition for releasing the BEAD funding. It could get very interesting if Congress gets involved in the increasingly unpopular copper decommissioning, including the FCC’s attempt to override California regulations of the issue. It doesn’t seem far-fetched for Congress to tell the FCC to back off from meddling in the content of TV programming.