The FCC is continuing to prepare for the 24 GHz auction and future auctions, including pushing forward on the C band and other bands being looked at for 5G. The 28 GHz auction closed Thursday. Nevertheless, the agency remains constrained in how much staff can do as the longest shutdown in federal history continues. “Staff continues to work on future auctions,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday.
The FCC is continuing to prepare for the 24 GHz auction and future auctions, including pushing forward on the C band and other bands being looked at for 5G. The 28 GHz auction closed Thursday. Nevertheless, the agency remains constrained in how much staff can do as the longest shutdown in federal history continues. “Staff continues to work on future auctions,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday.
The U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act, a bill that would give the president the ability to raise tariffs above the bound rate to match trading partners' levels, was introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., on Jan. 24. The bill has 18 co-sponsors, all Republicans.
It remains unclear whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take up the successor agreement to NAFTA in 2019, and whether the president might try to force her hand by submitting a withdrawal notice, according to a Mayer Brown partner who served as chief of staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative before joining the firm. "We're intentionally leaving it with a lack of clarity," Tim Keeler said, "Because that is frankly what the situation is in Washington right now."
The public commenting systems of numerous regulatory agencies are, like the FCC's electronic comment filing system, seemingly frozen at the point where the agency was shut down, according to experts and our analysis. Government transparency advocates say that's better than nothing, though concerns are strong that the partial federal government shutdown could scare away the public from taking part in ongoing proceedings.
Expect Senate and House Commerce Committee hearings on wireless carrier location tracking practices that stirred national security concerns, lawmakers told us. Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., wants briefings from carriers on recent reports companies sold customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1901110042). “I want to hear personally not only from folks on the communications side but also continue hearing if there are any national security implications,” Warner told us.
Expect Senate and House Commerce Committee hearings on wireless carrier location tracking practices that stirred national security concerns, lawmakers told us. Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., wants briefings from carriers on recent reports companies sold customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1901110042). “I want to hear personally not only from folks on the communications side but also continue hearing if there are any national security implications,” Warner told us.
The public commenting systems of numerous regulatory agencies are, like the FCC's electronic comment filing system, seemingly frozen at the point where the agency was shut down, according to experts and our analysis. Government transparency advocates say that's better than nothing, though concerns are strong that the partial federal government shutdown could scare away the public from taking part in ongoing proceedings.
The National Retail Federation blasted trade legislation expected to have been introduced Thursday in the House that would grant broader presidential authority to raise U.S. tariffs on foreign goods. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., told Fox News Wednesday he planned to introduce the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act to give President Donald Trump the “tools” necessary “to make sure that we’re not robbed anymore” on allegedly unfair tariff rates, he said. The EU slaps a 68 percent tariff on imported butter produced in Duffy's 7th congressional district in Wisconsin, while European butter enters the U.S. at only a 3.8 percent levy rate, he said. His legislation would move the U.S. “further away from a tariff war and brings us tariff peace,” he said. Duffy's plan now is to introduce the bill next week after he lands more co-sponsors, a spokesperson told us late Thursday. NRF Senior Vice President David French said Congress “should be working to protect local communities from an escalated trade war” brought on by the Trump administration’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports and China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Duffy’s “misguided” legislation “would do the exact opposite, giving the executive branch limitless power to raise taxes in the form of tariffs,” said French. “Congress has already ceded far too much of its clear constitutional authority over tariffs, and we are witnessing the consequences unfold across the country. The idea that Congress would make matters even worse by further abdicating its role on trade policy is simply unconscionable.” CTA shares "similar concerns" as NRF about Duffy's legislation, emailed a spokesperson Thursday.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said businesses "must be able to challenge the reach and basis" of agency orders "used in litigation to purportedly subject them to enormous damages," including FCC Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulations. "TCPA lawsuits are a cottage industry and a scourge on legitimate businesses ... who have little warning that reasonable communicative activities may generate crushing litigation," said the Chamber's Supreme Court amicus brief Tuesday backing neither side in PDR Network v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, No. 17-1705. "The Court should ensure that its disposition of this case does not undermine the regulatory certainty and national uniformity promoted by the Hobbs Act, while also protecting private businesses’ due process rights to defend against unwarranted liability inflicted by the FCC’s prior interpretations of the TCPA." PDR argued a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Hobbes Act ruling in its fax case stripped a district court of jurisdiction to review an FCC "unsolicited advertisement" decision (see 1901090045). The Supreme Court hasn't validated the argument that federal courts are "statutorily bound" by an agency statutory interpretation that's "unambiguously unlawful," said Oklahoma, Texas and other states backing petitioners. "Yet that is what Respondent argues and what the court below held." That "creates a Hobson’s choice: either monitor the Federal Register and challenge every guidance document within 60 days of promulgation, or forever waive any statutory or constitutional defense to private suits," they wrote, suggesting: "U.S. Courts of Appeals have exclusive jurisdiction over direct challenges to final orders that have the force of law, but defendants in private suits always retain the ability to raise constitutional or statutory defenses -- even if they conflict with how federal agencies have interpreted the relevant statutes."