CTIA warned Alaska commissioners not to adopt connections-based contribution for state USF. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) is weighing whether to repeal or revamp its state fund (see 1804040039). CTIA earlier challenged Nebraska and Utah commission decisions to adopt connections, including a pending lawsuit against the Nebraska Public Service Commission where the association’s brief is due May 18 (see 1801310054). A connections-based approach is “difficult to implement in a manner that doesn't violate federal law,” said CTIA Counsel-External and State Affairs Matt DeTura Monday during a teleconferenced RCA workshop. It may also increase financial burden on low-income consumers and business customers, he said. CTIA supports funding state USF with general tax revenue, he said. Officials for Alaska Communications and the Alaska Attorney General Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy office supported connections-based contribution. AT&T General Attorney Cindy Manheim said Alaska USF is unsustainable but urged more time to discuss the right way forward. She suggested the RCA talk to the legislature before proceeding with a connections-based approach. The Alaska Telephone Association’s plan (see 1802270034) offers short-term stability while providing time to work out longer-term changes including what to do about contribution, said ATA Executive Director Christine O’Connor. Commissioner Robert Pickett said connections-based contribution may be unrealistic. And a 10-year sunset of the fund proposed by ATA may be too long, Pickett said. The AUSF size could be “rather de minimus” a decade from now at its current 10 percent annual rate of decline, he said.

The Competitive Carriers Association, NTCA and the Rural Wireless Association raised questions about an NPRM set for a vote at the April 17 commissioners’ meeting proposing to bar use of money in any USF program to buy equipment or services from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain. But that hasn’t translated into ex parte meetings at the FCC. RWA raised concerns Monday in a filing in new docket 18-89. China experts said concerns are legitimate.

Senate Communications Subcommittee member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other members of the Hawaii congressional delegation during a Thursday field hearing touted a set of bills they say are aimed at addressing issues with the emergency alert system highlighted during a January false alarm about a possible ballistic missile headed for the state (see 1801160054 and 1803160042).

The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee appears likely to have a second act well beyond its planned April 25 meeting, where it's expected to consider controversial model codes for states and municipalities. One possibility is that with its main work largely over, the BDAC will start to look more like a normal Federal Advisory Committee Act group, with members assigned additional work, members said. Terms on BDAC are to run two years under the committee’s charter, though they can end earlier as determined by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Members were appointed a year ago. The panel may also get additional local government members, after facing heavy scrutiny over lacking many.

The Vermont Public Utility Commission won't consider how to regulate VoIP in docket 18-0443 while Comcast’s challenge to the PUC's Feb. 7 ruling in docket 7316 -- that interconnected VoIP is a telecom service under federal law -- remains pending, the PUC said in a Monday order. Consolidated Communications supported and Vermont staff didn't oppose the stay (see 1803210038).

Bills asking state utility commissions to oversee net neutrality are raising disagreement among state officials. Some say state commissions can and should handle the responsibility, but others said such oversight is impractical or better handled at the federal level. At a Wednesday hearing in Massachusetts, a state senator driving net neutrality legislation asked if industry opponents would at least consider signing a memorandum of understanding.

Cable and telco executives said Congress should resolve the net neutrality dispute and end policy flip-flops that, one suggested, threaten broadband investment more than heavy regulation. "It's time to put the rules in place and move on," said Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. But the executives expressed more hope than optimism, with some pessimistic about the near-term prospects. Recent revelations and concerns about the use of Facebook data could drive privacy legislation discussions, some said. Others focused on 5G wireless and fiber deployment efforts.

The circulation of draft orders three weeks before meetings has apparently led to a big falloff in the number of ex parte visits to the FCC, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. O’Rielly spoke on a panel with fellow Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr. Both also said more than three months after the 3-2 FCC vote to overturn the 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1712140039) they remain convinced the FCC made the right move. Earlier, Chairman Ajit Pai and NTIA Administrator David Redl outlined various initiatives, including to promote 5G.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly drew renewed scrutiny Monday for their attendance at the American Conservative Union's February Conservative Political Action Conference, this time from House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa. Carr, O’Rielly and Pai spoke on a panel at CPAC about process and structural changes at the FCC made since the commission shifted to majority-Republican control last year (see 1802230037). The Project on Government Oversight cited O’Rielly’s comment calling for the re-election of President Donald Trump as a potential violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts government officials' partisan political activity (see 1802270035). On the advice of FCC lawyers (see 1803020033), Pai turned down the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award, which was awarded at CPAC for his role in and the hostile fallout from the rollback of the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. “Your willingness to attend and help promote a political rally raises serious concerns about your roles as leaders of an independent federal agency, and the potential of taxpayer dollars being spent towards political ends,” Pallone and Doyle said in a letter to the GOP commissioners. “The public should be able to expect that independent agencies” like the FCC “will carry out their responsibilities in a nonpartisan manner.” Since the FCC shifted to majority-GOP control, the commission “has become not only more partisan, but increasingly political,” the Democratic lawmakers said. “Commissioners seem to be using their positions during this administration as a platform to promote and even raise funds towards a political agenda.” Doyle and Pallone noted Pai’s decision to turn down the NRA award, but “we are nonetheless concerned about how an FCC Chair allowed himself to be put in a situation where such an ethically questionable award could be presented to him.” The lawmakers asked the commissioners to respond by April 16 to a series of questions about their decision to attend CPAC, including whether they sought advice from the FCC’s Office of General Counsel about “whether you could attend CPAC under the FCC’s or other relevant ethics rules” and whether they used FCC resources in any way to support their appearance at the event. The FCC didn’t comment, but a commission official noted “many government officials,” including Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon, spoke at CPAC.

President Donald Trump signed the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) and other tech and telecom policy provisions included in the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625) Friday, despite a last-minute threat to veto the measure. The Senate passed the omnibus early Friday 65-32, after behind-the-scenes "begging, pleading and cajoling" to assuage objections from Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the floor.