Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and some other congressional leaders are objecting to a compromise version of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) released Saturday night with language allocating $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412070001). The leaders’ concerns complicate plans for HR-5009's passage. House leaders are eyeing a vote on the measure this week. Meanwhile, some lawmakers want to attach the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449) and permanently lift some telehealth restrictions via other end-of-year measures.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), which has complained to the FCC about SpaceX's alleged conduct in the Russia-Ukraine War, is now raising concerns about the company's environmental impact and CEO Elon Musk's role in President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration. In a petition to deny last week filed with the FCC Space Bureau, UCCA said the agency has a legal responsibility to consider whether there needs to be an environmental assessment or impact statement done for large constellations as part of its review of proposed launches of Starlink satellites from SpaceX's Texas launch site. "More satellites and launches lead to more polluting, soot, gases and metals in the Earth’s atmosphere," it said. UCCA urged the agency to refrain from any further authorizations to Starlink for satellites, frequencies or capacity absent an environmental assessment/ impact statement and before SpaceX shows that further launches of its rockets won't cause environmental harm around the launch site. In a separate motion for stay, UCCA said Musk's role as co-head of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, while also running SpaceX, violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act by creating a conflict of interest or the appearance of one. It called on the agency to stop processing all SpaceX applications and requests until any conflicts of interest are addressed. Given Musk's companies' dealings with the federal government -- both as regulatees and as suppliers -- having him in charge of DOGE "is equivalent to allowing a fox to guard the henhouse," the group said. SpaceX didn't comment Friday. The Ukrainian-American organizations' umbrella group petitioned the FCC in April seeking an investigation of whether SpaceX should lose its licenses because it allegedly disabled the Ukrainian military's use of Starlink while allowing its use by Russia (see 2404240019). Space regulatory experts don't expect the agency to start requiring environmental reviews of satellite systems anytime soon (see 2409200008).

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, and eight other committee Republicans urged the Biden administration Dec. 5 to step up implementation and enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s oil sector to deprive Tehran of funding for terrorism and nuclear weapons development.

The Senate unanimously passed the Access to Capital Creates Economic Strength and Supports Rural America Act (S-3242) Wednesday night, drawing praise from NTCA. The measure and House companion HR-4360 would exempt small telecom companies from several SEC filing requirements, including raising the number of investors that would trigger some SEC requirements for telecom companies that receive "support, directly through an affiliate, through any Federal universal service support" mechanism. S-3242 lead sponsors Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, hailed the measure’s passage. It “cuts red tape for our small broadband providers and helps them expand reliable, affordable internet to more families and small businesses across Wisconsin,” Baldwin said. “I’m grateful my bipartisan effort to cut regulations, reduce unnecessary requirements, and unleash local telecom companies passed the Senate,” Ernst said. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said S-3242 “will help relieve … smaller, locally owned companies with limited resources” from SEC requirements “intended for larger, publicly traded firms.” The measure will “enable small providers to focus more on their core mission of deploying and operating advanced broadband networks in rural areas,” she said.

Two groups are challenging the FCC’s October order giving the FirstNet Authority, and indirectly AT&T, use of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2410220027). The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) is challenging the order, while the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) is protesting aspects of it. Both recently filed petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Incarcerated people’s calling service providers and law enforcement groups want the FCC to reconsider provisions of its implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act, but a coalition of public groups said the industry arguments are incorrect and procedurally wrong, comments filed in docket 23-62 posted Tuesday show. Most of the filings focused on October petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s order from NCIC Communications and HomeWAV, and aimed at the agency’s categorization of costs and fees, handling of provider expenses, and timing of the order’s changes to prison calling rules.

Radio Communications Corporation wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to strike an FCC filing related to a disagreement between the agency and the broadcaster over oral argument conducted before the court last week (see 2411180040). After the Nov. 18 oral argument, RCC sent the court a letter disputing a statement FCC attorney Adam Sorensen made during the session about must-carry rights. Sorensen told the three-judge panel: “There’s really nothing in the statute that would indicate to the commission that Congress had even considered the issue, let alone taken the very significant step of extending must-carry rights to Class A stations.” RCC’s letter after oral argument disputed that statement, pointing to language in a 2004 amendment to the Satellite Home Viewer Act that defined Class A stations as low-power TV stations. The FCC responded Friday, saying the court should disregard RCC’s letter because it wasn’t pertinent, and the company didn’t raise the matter in its briefs. “The fact that Congress defined Class A stations as low-power television stations for purposes of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 does not suggest that Class A stations are equivalent to full power stations in all other contexts,” the FCC said. In a motion filed the same day, RCC said the FCC’s response should be stricken from the record. The FCC’s response “unfairly denied RCC the opportunity to rebut the Commission’s procedural arguments because the Court’s ECF filing system does not allow RCC to file a further response to the Commission’s Letter,” said RCC. “Therefore, RCC is compelled, and unfairly so, to file the instant motion to strike.” RCC’s filings were “entirely appropriate and warranted under the circumstances and certainly not deserving of a rebuke from the party who misstated the law to the Court,” RCC said.

Two Dominican nationals were sentenced to two years in prison and then two years of supervised release for smuggling juvenile American eels from Puerto Rico, DOJ announced. Saul Enrique Jose De la Cruz was sentenced on Nov. 21, and Simon De la Cruz Paredes was sentenced earlier this month.

Two Dominican nationals were sentenced to two years in prison and then two years of supervised release for smuggling juvenile American eels from Puerto Rico, DOJ announced. Saul Enrique Jose De la Cruz was sentenced on Nov. 21, and Simon De la Cruz Paredes was sentenced earlier this month.

A free-trade senator shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump's promise to put 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods, Canadian politicians scurried to convince Trump it can satisfy his demands, and Mexico's president alternately scolded and offered cooperation to the president-elect.