FCC action on Newsmax's January blackout on DirecTV (see 2301250042) is unlikely, though it generated a brief burst of complaints filed with the FCC plus House GOP lawmaker ire, media industry officials said in interviews. There also have been almost no signals a congressional hearing is likely in the near future, lawmakers and media observers told us. Newsmax and DirecTV didn't comment.
A three-judge panel on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the timing of Consumers' Research's challenge of the USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor and how the nondelegation doctrine applied to the FCC's determination of the quarterly factor Thursday. Judges heard oral argument Friday on the challenge (see 2303060069).
An FCC robotexting order approved Thursday (see 2303160061) and posted Friday interjects a changed focus from “unwanted” text messages to “potentially harmful” and “unlawful” texts. Officials said Thursday the order included “minor” tweaks addressing changes sought by Commissioner Brendan Carr and industry. CTIA was able to get several changes it sought, based on a side-by-side comparison. Commissioners made few changes to a Stir/Shaken order, also released Friday.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., pressed the FCC Thursday for a detailed accounting of its distribution of money to four broadband programs enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and COVID-19 aid measures. Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., meanwhile, led refiling of the Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable (Fair) Contributions Act.
FCC commissioners unanimously approved a supplemental coverage from space (SCS) NPRM at their March open meeting Thursday, but Republican commissioners sounded alarms about the proceeding potentially slowing agency processing of pending applications regarding satellite connectivity to smartphones. The NPRM's approval was expected (see 2303090047). Also getting 4-0 OK was an inmate calling services (ICS) NPRM on implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act and a Further NPRM on expanding the number of broadcast TV markets required to provide audio description (see 2303100043). The approved items weren't released.
The District of Columbia’s 911 office will improve processes and be “transparent and accountable to the public,” said its possible next director, Heather McGaffin, at a D.C. Council committee roundtable livestreamed Wednesday. Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chair Brooke Pinto (D) pressed McGaffin on how she will make the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) more open about errors responding to emergency calls. The committee mulled confirming McGaffin (PR25-0115) to lead OUC and Lindsey Appiah to be deputy mayor-public safety and justice.
Inmate calling services providers and consumer advocacy organizations welcomed a draft NPRM and order the FCC will consider during the commissioners' open meeting Thursday that would begin implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. Advocates sought some clarifying language in the final item, and ICS providers sought additional language in the draft on how the agency should establish just and reasonable rates.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., pressed the FCC in a letter we obtained ahead of its planned sending Thursday morning for a detailed accounting of its distribution of money to four broadband programs enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and COVID-19 aid measures. Thune in December began his own review of all federal broadband programs’ oversight of funding disbursals. Cruz has joined Thune in raising concerns about some of these programs since taking over as lead Commerce Republican in January.
Industry groups and broadband experts want flexibility in the buy American provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, per comments to OMB posted through Tuesday in docket OMB-2023-0004-0001. OMB sought comments on proposed revisions and clarifications to the IIJA's Build America, Buy America Act provisions. Some raised concerns about how the requirements could affect broadband deployment projects funded through NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program and backed establishing a waiver process.
Plaintiff Crown Castle is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law on its claims that the town of Oyster Bay, New York, unlawfully blocked its applications to install 23 small wireless facilities (SWFs) in the town’s public rights-of-way (ROW). So said Crown Castle’s reply memorandum Friday (docket 2:21-cv-06305) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip in further support of its summary judgment motion.