Whereas, in 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution affirming that the same rights people have offline must be protected online and called for countries to promote and facilitate access to the internet to develop knowledgeable societies with the realization of the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right to education; Whereas the First Amendment to the Constitution protects the freedom of speech and expression for all persons, and the Supreme Court has ruled that speech and expression on the internet is included in such protections; Whereas the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published the National Broadband Plan in 2010 to bring broadband to all Americans but, as of 2020, 22.3 percent of Americans living in rural areas lacked access to fixed broadband services, compared to only 1.5 percent of Americans living in urban areas; Whereas digital divides contribute to and exacerbate poverty and inequality in modern society by prohibiting equal access to public services, employment opportunities, educational resources, basic liberties, and fundamental rights guaranteed to all Americans; Whereas, in April 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services found that more than 1 in 6 people with incomes below the Federal poverty level had no access to the internet, and 18 percent of people with incomes below 100 percent of the Federal poverty level lacked internet access, compared to only 3 percent of people with incomes at or above 400 percent of the Federal poverty level; Whereas, in 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that only 65 percent of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians living on Tribal lands had access to fixed broadband services, and only 69 percent of households on Tribal lands have telephone services