If you’re wondering where FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will be next week, don’t look to the Portals or anywhere around the National Capital Region.
That’s because he’ll be on the road, driving across five states in a 1,100-mile tour devoted to rural broadband concerns that will conclude with an address at the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Convention.
Pai’s 2017 Upper Midwest Tour begins in Milwaukee on Monday (6/5) and concludes June 10 in Casper, Wyo.
Stops include locales in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota.
The key goal from Pai’s road trip is to learn of the challenges facing rural broadband providers and to discuss how the Commission can help close a digital divide between urban and rural America.
Pai has confirmed that he will hold events with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Sen. John Thune (R-S. Dakota), Chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Pai will also participate in a Tribal consultation on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, ahead of his address to Wyoming broadcasters.
This marks Pai’s second road trip since being named FCC Chairman. In mid-March, he participated in a three-day tour featuring stops in Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio; and Detroit.
