FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel should act quickly to raise video relay service rates before July 31, said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico, in a letter Wednesday. “I urge the FCC to adopt updated rates this month, and in doing so, account for inflation since the last rate setting,” Lujan said. “Providers cannot afford another year, let alone another quarter, of stagnant reimbursement levels despite rising costs.” VRS providers have face record high inflation and the FCC hasn’t set new rates since 2017, the letter said. The “frozen rates” left VRS providers “struggling” to raise rates for their interpreters and limited their ability to improve their technology to keep pace with advancements in E911 and videoconferencing, Lujan said. “There are roughly 3000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people in New Mexico, and approximately 10 million across the United States,” said the letter. “These Americans deserve the same access to these lifeline services as everyone else.” The FCC received and is reviewing the letter, an agency spokesperson told us.

The FCC and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are partnering on a trial of georouting calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the commission said Thursday as commissioners approved 988 outage reporting requirements 4-0, as expected (see 2307130010). Commissioners also unanimously approved an order allowing 14 FM6 stations to broadcast analog signals as an ancillary service and an order giving tribal libraries and other E-rate participants greater access to funding.

The four network affiliate associations are backing a new advocacy group to push the FCC and lawmakers to classify streaming services as MVPDs, said a news release and new website Tuesday from a newly formed coalition. “The Coalition for Local News is dedicated to the belief that local news is essential to the well-being of local communities across the nation and is a vital pillar of American democracy,” said the release, which discusses the disparity between retransmission consent rules for MVPDs versus streaming services. "The market has evolved dramatically and it's time for lawmakers and regulators to act to protect local broadcast news," the release said. The affiliate groups and other broadcasters -- with the support of some lawmakers -- have long called for the FCC to reopen a 2014 proceeding on classifying streaming services as MVPDs (see 2306230062). The FCC’s recent announcement it will refresh the record on carriage rules (see 2307120072) is “an acknowledgment of the need to modernize video regulations in light of a changing marketplace,” the release said. The coalition “will be engaged in an array of advocacy efforts, including working with groups that recognize the vital importance of local news and urging them to get involved in this debate,” the release said. DirecTV pushed back on calls to reopen the virtual MVPD proceeding in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-261. DirecTV is in the midst of a transmission consent dispute with Nexstar, and in the filing condemned the broadcaster for blacking out CW Network programming for DirecTV on both its own and Sinclair-owned stations. “Nexstar’s conduct shows that affiliates’ attempt to regulate online providers has never really been about 'preserving local broadcasting' or anything else of the sort," DirecTV said. “Affiliates simply want the government to give them leverage against the networks.” The “very last thing anybody should want to do is extend today’s dysfunctional retransmission consent market -- one whose dysfunction is caused largely by Nexstar -- into the online marketplace,” DirecTV said. "Nexstar is and always has been in full compliance with FCC regulations, and the allegations raised by DIRECTV in today’s filing are without merit," said a Nexstar spokesperson.

Congress should pass federal right-to-repair legislation to supersede ill-equipped state laws that will soon become obsolete, advocates told House Judiciary Committee members Tuesday.

A group of commercial fishing companies is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to do away with the Chevron doctrine, in a brief filed Monday in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Many observers consider SCOTUS likely to eliminate or severely limit Chevron deference (see 2306290063). The lead lawyer on the brief (docket 22-451) is Paul Clement, U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative exceeded its authority in imposing the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on China, covering a total of $320 billion worth of Chinese imports, plaintiff-appellants in the massive case against the duties, led by HTMX Industries and Jasco Products Co., argued in their opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Appealing the Court of International Trade's decision upholding the tariffs (see 2204010061), the companies said USTR did not have the authority to set the duties since the authority was not directly delegated by Congress, in violation of the "major questions doctrine" (HMTX Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1891).

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Friday opinion (docket 22-2392), affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in Verizon’s favor, ruling that the denial by White Deer Township in central Pennsylvania of Verizon’s applications for seven variances to build a 195-foot monopole cell tower had the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services, in violation of the Telecommunications Act. Verizon leased 2,600 square feet of a 1.9-acre property to build the tower to fill a four-mile gap in wireless coverage along a desolate stretch of Interstate 80.

If allowed to go into effect, SB-396, Arkansas’ social media age verification law (see 2307100005), will require all users -- including adults -- to verify their age before they can access their social media accounts, or create new ones, said a Friday amici curiae brief (docket 5:23-cv-05105) filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in support of NetChoice’s motion for preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas in Fayetteville.

The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:

Assessing a 5% fee on streaming TV gross annual revenue is necessary to keep community media thriving, Massachusetts state Rep. Joan Meschino (D) said Thursday at a Joint Advanced Information Technology Committee livestreamed hearing. The committee heard testimony on Meschino’s H-74 and the similar S-34. Community TV officials supported the bill, saying the fee is necessary to restore lost funding from declining cable franchise revenue. The committee’s House Chair Tricia Farley-Bouvier (D) agreed with the goal of saving community media and local news but said she sees “a lot of work to do” to decide how to do it. Senate Chair Michael Moore (D) asked if the proposed law is preempted by an FCC August 2019 order restricting local franchise regulation of non-cable services being delivered by cable networks. Mass Access President Dave Gauthier said it wouldn’t be preempted. Rep. Jeffrey Turco (D) questioned if adding a tax to consumers' streaming bills would be good policy since many people cut cable to save money. Taxing streaming companies through the bills might violate the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, said TechNet Executive Director-Northeast Christopher Gilrein. “Beyond being an ill-timed burden on your constituents, this new tax would be duplicative and administratively burdensome.” Also at the hearing, the committee weighed a bill (H-82) by Rep. Michael Soter (R) to ban TikTok on government devices. If the federal government thinks TikTok is risky, Massachusetts should take the issue seriously, he said. New England Cable and Telecommunications Association President Tim Wilkerson raised concerns that the committee is considering several bills to expand communications regulation. He urged the state legislators to take note that the FCC should soon have five commissioners and is the body that should decide whether to make new rules.