A U.S. Supreme Court opinion late Thursday preventing fired independent commissioners from resuming their work is a strong indication that the high court will allow President Donald Trump to remove FCC and FTC commissioners from the minority party, academics and attorneys said in interviews Friday.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is defending cuts to the agency’s workforce and other actions in written testimony ahead of the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s planned Wednesday hearing on commission oversight. Carr also urges Congress again to restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority, as House GOP leaders aimed to pass, as soon as Wednesday night, their One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package with spectrum language included. The House Appropriations Financial Services hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2358-A Rayburn.
The FCC received additional backing for proposals to change commission rules for the 24.45-24.65 GHz band that would provide more spectrum for drones. Support was evident in reply comments on a January NPRM (see 2504160017). The NPRM also sought comment on opening the 450 MHz band “to aeronautical command and control operations” and modernizing “legacy power rules” for aviation air-ground systems in the 849-851 and 894-896 MHz bands.
The FCC on Friday announced commission approval of Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier, in an action by the Wireline Bureau (see 2505160024). The approval came immediately after Verizon filed a letter at the FCC agreeing to get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a recurring focus of President Donald Trump. DEI defenders criticized the order. Industry officials told us one reason FCC Chairman Brendan Carr probably didn’t seek a commissioner vote was because of the DEI provisions and concerns about opposition from the two Democratic commissioners.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., doubled down Thursday on her opposition to the House Commerce Committee’s budget reconciliation package spectrum language (see 2505120058), saying it didn’t adequately protect DOD-controlled bands. House Commerce voted Wednesday to advance the measure, which would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through FY 2034 and mandate the commission auction 600 MHz within six years (see 2505140062).
NextNav on Wednesday called on the FCC to move forward with an NPRM looking at its proposal for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in the 902-928 MHz band as an alternative to GPS. Others urged the FCC to encourage multiple alternatives as a backup to GPS. Reply comments were due Wednesday on a notice of inquiry that commissioners approved 4-0 in March (see 2503270042). Numerous commenters sharply criticized the NextNav proposal.
An ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate and a set date for the switch to the new standard are necessary for TV broadcasting to survive and compete with streaming, said Sinclair, Scripps, Gray and others in comments filed in response to NAB’s 3.0 petition in docket 16-142 by Wednesday’s deadline. The Consumer Technology Association, public interest organizations and multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) groups disagreed, arguing that a mandatory transition would increase costs for consumers and MVPDs, all to provide broadcasters with a new revenue stream.
Major communications trade groups filed a petition Thursday asking the FCC for a rulemaking on its enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision about whether federal regulatory agencies can bring in-house proceedings to enforce civil penalties. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association filed the petition.
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday that his lawsuit against CBS, 60 Minutes and Paramount over the editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris is a “true WINNER” and threatened the New York Times for reporting that the case is baseless. “They just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, possibly to the point where the Times’ interjection makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying,” Trump wrote. “60 Minutes perpetrated a Giant FRAUD against the American People, the Federal Elections Commission, and the Federal Communications System.”
What will come out of the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding is hard to say at this point, since it builds on other FCC efforts to cut regulations, experts said during a webinar Wednesday by the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University. The FCC has logged more than 1,100 comments so far in docket 25-133, with replies due this week (see 2504290054 and 2504290038).