The Senate is highly unlikely to act on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn before the November election amid a busy legislative calendar and a campaign-centric atmosphere on Capitol Hill that’s made confirmation next to impossible for any Biden administration picks who lack GOP support, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Top Senate Commerce Committee Republicans all but shot down speculation that circulated during the August recess that pairing Sohn with an eventual replacement for retiring GOP FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips (see 2208170039) could ease GOP opposition to the FCC nominee’s confirmation.
Industry and state regulators disagreed on whether the FCC should grant Midcontinent's petition for declaratory ruling on rules for obtaining local interconnection. Reply comments were posted Monday in docket 22-277 (see 2207200050). Midcontinent asked the FCC to affirm that, under its Time Warner and CRC Communications rulings, that any telecom carrier is "entitled to interconnection for the purpose of providing wholesale local interconnection services."
Additional money to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and a short-term extension of the FCC’s expiring spectrum auction authority both remain under consideration as additions to a planned continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Sept. 30, but talks remain highly fluid, lawmakers and lobbyists told us last week. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other committee leaders left open the possibility of a short-term auction authority renewal as a stopgap, telling us they hadn’t reached a deal during the August recess on a broader spectrum legislative package.
Policymakers should remove special legal protections for tech platforms under Communications Decency Act Section 230, increase algorithm transparency and set clear data collection limits, the White House said Thursday, outlining principles for enhancing competition and tech accountability.
On one of the big spectrum inquiries of the summer, most commenters agreed the FCC can do more to address spectrum offshore needs, though there was little consensus on what the agency should do. One big area of disagreement is the role unlicensed should have. Replies were due Friday on a notice of inquiry commissioners approved 4-0 in June (see 2206080055) and most were posted Monday in docket 22-204. In initial comments, carriers urged caution (see 2207280032).
Industry continued to disagree whether the FCC should revisit its cost allocation framework for utility pole replacements or attachments, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 17-84 (see 2206280066). Central to the debate was whether pole owners directly benefit from pole replacements and how much information owners should be required to disclose to requesting attachers.
California bills to require wireless eligibility for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants and to fund the 988 mental health line passed the legislature Thursday and will go to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for signature. As California legislators head into their final week, several communications bills on broadband, social media and free inmate calls await floor votes (see 2208120039).
Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).
Tech and antitrust staffers on the Senate Commerce and Senate Judiciary Committees top the list of potential successors to FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips, former officials and industry representatives told us.
Wireline ISPs urged California Senate appropriators to support a bill to revise the California Public Utilities Commission’s review process for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant applications, at a hearing Monday. AB-2749 would streamline the CASF program with federal funding coming, said USTelecom lobbyist Yolanda Benson at the livestreamed Senate Appropriations hearing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes AB-2749 (see 2205240048). The committee agreed to move the bill to its “suspense file," a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up before a Friday fiscal-committee deadline. The committee also sent to suspense AB-32 to keep temporary telehealth changes made on an emergency basis during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2105170030); AB-1262, which seeks to restrict use of recordings or transcriptions of what users say to or in the presence of smart speakers; and AB-2750 to require the CPUC to develop a state digital equity plan by Jan. 1, 2024. California appropriators sent many other communications bills to suspense last week (see 2208030056 and 2208010060).