biden administration

The Biden administration announced Friday that it is waiving some “Buy America” requirements for its $42 billion broadband program. The waiver allows some of the funds for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program — President Biden’s push to expand high-speed internet access nationwide — to be spent on equipment manufactured abroad. The decision comes after the Department of Commerce found that some materials are not produced stateside in “sufficient and reasonably available quantities” to…

The Biden administration plans to loosen the limits on tailpipe emissions proposed last year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), giving automakers more time before they’ll be required to sell significantly more electric vehicles than gas-powered cars, reported this weekend. Under the , EVs would have to account for 67 percent of new car and light-duty truck sales by 2032.Rather than forcing manufacturers to start ramping up EV sales right away, the changes would allow them to make the shift more gradually…

The Biden administration will halt enrollment in a program that provides broadband discounts to millions of Americans as it runs low on funds and prepares to wind down in the coming months. The Affordable Connectivity Program will stop accepting new enrollments at 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, a White House spokesperson confirmed. The cutoff comes as the program’s remaining funding is to set to run out in May. The Biden administration, which has previously called on Congress to provide an additional $6…

Robocalls are annoying enough, but the growth of generative artificial intelligence could make it much easier for phone-based scams to fool people. Now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is hoping to head off this potential threat before it becomes an even bigger problem.FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, on Wednesday, proposed new rules that would make robocalls using AI-generated voices illegal.“AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and…

The Biden administration enacted a new labor rule Tuesday that aims to prevent the misclassification of workers as “independent contractors,” a step that could bolster both legal protections and compensation for millions of gig workers in the U.S. workforce.The Labor Department rule, which the administration proposed 15 months ago, replaces a scrapped Trump-era standard that lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors. Such workers neither receive federal minimum wage protections nor qualify for employee…

The Biden administration announced an agreement Thursday to provide $162 million in federal funding to Microchip Technology to expand production of computer chips domestically, the second tranche of money doled out from a bipartisan law signed in 2022. The Commerce Department announced preliminary terms with the Arizona-based manufacturer, which will allow the company to “significantly increase its U.S. production of microcontroller units (MCUs) and other specialty semiconductors built on mature-nodes critical to…

Apple on Tuesday appealed a decision to ban imports of its watches based on a complaint from medical monitoring technology company Masimo, after US President Joe Biden's administration declined to veto a government tribunal.The tech giant also filed an emergency request on Tuesday for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to halt the ban. Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill CoursesOffering CollegeCourseWebsiteMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Senior Management…

Today, December 20, artificial intelligence space has emerged as a big talking point again as various countries are taking significant steps in integrating the technology and formulating the right regulatory procedures. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has written a post looking back at 2023 and the year ahead. In his post, he predicted that AI will take center stage in 2024 and will “supercharge the innovation pipeline”. In other news, the defence ministry signed a Rs. 1,614 crore contract for the procurement of six…

The Biden administration is no longer communicating with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, about foreign election interference, the tech giant revealed in its quarterly threat report released Thursday.   Meta said the federal government stopped sharing information about foreign meddling efforts in July, the same month that a federal judge blocked administration officials from communicating with social media companies about content removal or restrictions. The ruling, which was later…

The Biden administration is moving forward with tightened energy efficiency standards for new residential water heaters, taking aim at what is the second-largest energy using appliances in most households.The Energy Department said their proposal, which would take affect in 2030, would save consumers some $11.4 billion in energy and water costs annually, while reducing hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the rules 30 year lifetime. Under the agency's proposal, the most commonly-used electric…