FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed hiking a USF Rural Health Care cap by 43 percent, from $400 million to $571 million per year, to reflect inflation since program inception in 1997. He circulated a draft order to increase the cap for the current (2017) funding year ending June 30, index the program for inflation going forward and allow unused funds from prior years to be carried forward to future years, said a release Wednesday. It noted recent demand exceeded the budget, creating uncertainty for participants. Rural healthcare (RHC) and telco interests welcomed the announcement.

Major parties urged the FCC to end two remaining rural call completion duties of providers covered by a 2013 order, after the agency ordered in April that their data reporting requirements be eliminated. CTIA, ITTA, NCTA, Sprint and USTelecom said the data recordkeeping and retention obligations should be scrapped, and Verizon said they should be reduced. NTCA opposed that. Parties offered various views on implementing the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act, in comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 13-39 on a Further NPRM attached to the April order, which made covered originating long-distance providers accountable for intermediate carrier performance (see 1804170025 and 1804180025).

The FCC proposal to bar USF spending on products or services from companies seen as posing a national security risk is meeting with mixed reaction, with disagreements about whether rules should be limited to USF-funded equipment and services or should have broader reach, recent docket 18-89 comments show. Huawei called the rulemaking launched in April (see 1804170038) an "improper and imprudent" blacklist, and some critics questioned the efficacy of the proposed approach. Comments were due Friday, replies July 2.

All signs point to an easy Senate confirmation vote for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks, but his lack of a clear public track record on many high-profile telecom policy issues likely portends tough questions from lawmakers in both parties in the weeks ahead, communications officials and lobbyists told us. President Donald Trump at our deadline Monday formally nominated Starks, an Enforcement Bureau assistant chief, to succeed outgoing Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for a term ending June 30, 2022. Chairman Ajit Pai and some other commissioners lauded Starks’ selection Friday, though only some directly received a White House announcement about the nomination then (see 1806010072).

The FCC extended comment deadlines into late summer on a USTelecom petition for incumbent telco forbearance relief from unbundling discounts and other wholesale duties. Instead of comments being due Thursday and replies June 22, they will now be due Aug. 6 and Sept. 5, respectively, said a Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 18-141, partially granting various requests. The bureau also issued a protective order. Many parties, from other telecom associations to state utility regulators, sought more time, and some also opposed the deregulation that USTelecom sought (see 1805210049). The ILEC association was OK with an extension (see 1805220056).

The American Cable Association, ITTA, NCTA and USTelecom are urging Senate Agriculture Committee leaders to “modify” the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) broadband loan program as part of its work on the farm bill to limit program-funded broadband projects' potential to involve overbuild of existing services. The program requires 15 percent of an applicant's proposed service area be unserved, which means 85 percent of the area can already be served by up to two other ISPs. “This practice does nothing to help those in rural America who still don’t have broadband service,” the industry groups said in a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., released Wednesday. “This government subsidization of a competitor in a market already served by one or two providers is an inefficient use of scarce funding and puts a thumb on the competitive scale, undermining future efforts to sustain existing networks or to build out broadband networks in high-cost areas.” The groups suggested Senate Agriculture mirror the overall RUS broadband funding rules to mirror those for the RUS-administered pilot distance learning, telemedicine and broadband program, which require qualifying projects to have a proposed service area that is at least 90 percent unserved. The pilot program received $600 million in funding via the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (see 1803220048 and 1803230038).

To reduce the global threat of botnets dramatically, it’s vital the tech industry “support and reward” continuous development of innovative security technology, the secretaries of commerce and homeland security told President Donald Trump in a report released Wednesday (see 1801110006). It responded to a May 2017 executive order. The order directed the secretaries to lead a cybersecurity effort with the goal of “dramatically reducing threats perpetrated by automated and distributed attacks.” The agencies hosted two workshops, issued as many requests for comment and published a stakeholder inquiry through the president’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. The agencies consulted DOD, DOJ, the State Department, FBI, FCC and FTC, among other agencies.

The California Senate voted 23-12 to pass a net neutrality bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) that was endorsed by former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. On the Senate floor Wednesday, one Democratic senator doubted SB-822 would hold up to legal scrutiny, but said he would vote for it anyway on principle. Republicans opposed the bill as harmful and illegal. In the lead-up to the vote, industry clashed with supporters of the FCC’s 2015 open internet rules.

California Public Utilities Commission staff wants to collect data from every ILEC and CLEC in the state so it can assess competition and “meaningfully” comment on USTelecom’s FCC forbearance petition, but the state commission doesn’t have time because comments are due June 7, said a CPUC staff memo released Friday: “This requires a lot of work.” Multiple groups are seeking an FCC extension on comments (see 1805230075), with CPUC seeking a delay until Sept. 5, staff said. “Staff expects that the FCC will grant some extension, though probably for less time than we have requested.” California commissioners plan to consider staff’s recommendation to file comments at their Thursday meeting.

Rural telcos asked the FCC to increase their USF support and take other steps to ensure subsidy flows meet statutory mandates and help carriers improve broadband service. Tribal groups said the agency had to do more to support tribal carrier broadband efforts and operations expenses. But NCTA opposed proposals to increase Connect America Fund spending for rate-of-return (RoR) telcos without offsets, and both it and the Wireless ISP Association suggesting using reverse auctions to award some support. Comments on an NPRM attached to an order providing $545 million in new support for RLECs (see 1803230025) were posted Friday and Tuesday in docket 10-90.