House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told us Tuesday night that he doesn’t see it as a setback that several Senate Commerce Committee Republicans want to pursue alternatives to parts of the House panel’s budget reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), even as some congressional DOD supporters raised their own objections to the measure. House Commerce cleared its spectrum and AI reconciliation language early Wednesday on a party-line, 29-24 vote after Democrats unsuccessfully floated a handful of amendments that reflected their objection to using future FCC auction proceeds as an offset for extending the 2017 tax cuts and other GOP priorities.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will withdraw the Biden administration’s proposed data broker rule, the bureau announced in a notice scheduled for publication Thursday in the Federal Register. Industry groups requested the withdrawal in April comments (see 2504030059).

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas is holding off on publicly endorsing or opposing the House Commerce Committee's reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), but he and some other fellow panel Republicans are already looking at potential changes if it emerges from the lower chamber as currently written. House Commerce hadn't yet tackled the reconciliation measure’s spectrum language Tuesday afternoon as panel members traded barbs about the legislation’s proposed Medicaid cuts.

Companies are starting to feel their way into a long-range import plan while still coping with a number of unknowns in the near term, according to a DHL official speaking during a May 12 company webinar on U.S. tariff updates.

House Democrats are raising conflict-of-interest questions regarding SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk. In a letter Tuesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, the lawmakers said Musk's role as head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency conflicts with SpaceX's role as a government contractor, given the influence DOGE has over agencies' contracts and contract bids. They said there's also a conflict of interest regarding DOGE's influence over regulators that oversee SpaceX. They called for a probe of whether SpaceX has received or could get special treatment due to Musk's role in the Trump administration. There also are questions about whether SpaceX used offshore accounts to mask the identities of Chinese investors, the lawmakers said.

The Trump administration needs a “bit more time” to review a congressional proposal to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said May 7.

The U.S. has a variety of paths to reach 600 MHz of high-power spectrum for carriers' use, the often-discussed goal of Congress, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters Tuesday following remarks at CTIA’s 5G Summit. The challenges that China presents also dominated discussions.

A petition by major trade associations asking the FCC for a rulemaking on the commission's enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision, raises interesting issues for the agency under Chairman Brendan Carr, industry experts told us. The groups on the petition are CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 2505010058). Experts said they’re watching closely what the FCC does next.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us in recent days that negotiations on potential compromise spectrum legislative language for a budget reconciliation package remain in flux. They emphasized it's still uncertain there will be a deal to obligate an airwaves pipeline as part of the measure. Their comments contrasted with the optimism that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voiced in recent interviews about the prospects of a spectrum deal that would satisfy pro-DOD legislators, who have resisted reallocating military-controlled midband airwaves.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't confer the power to impose tariffs, California argued at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Responding to the government's motion to transfer the state's challenge -- which centers on President Donald Trump's use of IEEPA to impose tariffs -- to the Court of International Trade, California argued that CIT doesn't have exclusive jurisdiction to hear the case, since "IEEPA does not provide for tariffs" (State of California v. Donald J. Trump, N.D. Cal. # 3:25-03372).