Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and subpanel members from both parties voiced growing frustration during a Tuesday hearing with DOJ’s perceived reticence in enforcing existing anti-robocall statutes and eyed the FCC’s Further NPRM giving consumers more choice on the robocalls and robotexts they will receive (see 2306080043). There was more uneven interest among Senate Communications members and witnesses at the hearing in pursuing additional legislation to address ongoing robocall problems amid those enforcement shortcomings.
Industry welcomed the FCC's efforts to establish a sustainability framework as part of its review of the future of its USF high-cost programs. Comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-90 showed widespread support for a contribution revamp and ensuring ongoing support for operational expenses remains available.
Members of Congress, since they have raised concerns about how administration actions to strike critical minerals deals overrode their trade authority and undermined the intent of the Inflation Reduction Act, may want to consider either passing trade promotion authority that addresses the issue, or passing more laws like the one regarding the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, a recent report from the Congressional Research Service suggested.
More than 100 Senate and House members this week asked the Biden administration to explain the steps it’s taking to address Hamas’ and other terrorist groups’ use of cryptocurrency to raise money and evade sanctions. In an Oct. 17 bipartisan letter to the Treasury Department and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the lawmakers pointed to reports that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad collectively raised over $130 million in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023, and asked if the administration needs more tools to “address the national security threats posed by illicit use of crypto by terrorist organizations.”
A House subcommittee hearing on the government's implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act zoomed in on de minimis shipments, low incidence of cotton isotopic testing and the slow pace of adding businesses to the UFLPA Entity List, which captures companies that accept labor transfers outside of Xinjiang.
The Commerce and Defense departments postponed briefings for the Senate Armed Services and Commerce committees originally expected to happen next week on the Pentagon's report on its study on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use (see 2309280087), lawmakers and communications lobbyists told us. There has been no clear explanation why, but word of the delay circulated in conjunction with chatter that the two federal departments are disagreeing on what the report’s conclusions mean for bids to sell or share parts of the lower 3 GHz band.
The FTC has an “uphill battle,” said Herb Hovenkamp, University of Pennsylvania law professor, Tuesday on an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar on the commission’s September antitrust complaint against Amazon (docket 2:23-cv-01495) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.
House Commerce Committee Republicans renewed their concerns Tuesday with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s draft net neutrality NPRM reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2309280084), but no one is expecting GOP members of that panel or elsewhere on Capitol Hill to make a strong push for now on legislation to halt the expected rewrite. Net neutrality legislation would be even more unlikely to pass now amid divided control of Congress than it was last year when Democrats had majorities in both chambers (see 2207280063), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Lawmakers are less enthusiastic about even pushing a pure messaging bill on the issue amid the current stasis, lobbyists said.
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 18 opinion remanded the Commerce Department's decision to deny importer Seneca Foods Corp.'s eight requests for exclusions from Section 232 steel and aluminum duties on its tin mill product imports. Judge Gary Katzmann granted Commerce's voluntary remand request for reconsideration of two of the denials, while also remanding the remaining six exclusion request denials after finding the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying the requests. Commerce did not adequately address contradictory evidence, the judge said, noting the decisions raise questions about Commerce's entire administrative process.
House Republicans nominated House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio as their pick for speaker after a contentious 124-81 vote that pitted him against Agriculture Committee Vice Chairman Austin Scott of Georgia. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a former Communications Subcommittee senior member (see 2310110057), withdrew as the designated GOP nominee Thursday, once it became clear enough Republican caucus members wouldn’t support him on the floor and thereby deny him an overall chamber majority. Jordan declared himself as again a speaker candidate after previously withdrawing in Scalise’s favor, while Scott got into the race because of misgivings about Jordan. A subsequent caucus poll on Republicans' commitment to vote for Jordan on the floor was 152-55, raising doubts about Jordan’s ability to get an overall House majority. Scott was among House Agriculture leaders who filed the Broadband for Rural America Act in 2021 in a bid to give the Agriculture Department more power to oversee rural connectivity buildout at the FCC's expense (see 2105210059).