The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to overhaul its export control policies to stem the flow of U.S. national security technology that is fueling China’s military modernization, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a report marking the end of a 90-day review of the agency (see 2210030068).
The State Department is offering up to a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Artem Aleksandrovich Uss, a Russian national who allegedly tried to violate U.S. export controls and sanctions. The agency said Uss used German industrial equipment company Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH to illegally export millions of dollars worth of military and sensitive dual-use technologies from the U.S. to Russia. He was also accused of using the U.S. financial system for payments related to the smuggling of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil.
A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would direct the Commerce Department to designate critical industries, critical goods and critical supply chains, as well as model the effect of disruptions to those supply chains and prepare for those risks.
A proposal to split the District of Columbia’s unified 911 system could advance in the D.C. Council despite opposition from D.C. Fire and Emergency Services (DCFEMS), said sponsor Brianne Nadeau (D) in an interview Friday. Nadeau was to introduce her bill Friday evening with fellow Democrats Zachary Parker, Janeese George, Trayon White and Robert White, a Nadeau spokesperson said.
If the FCC doesn’t impede state regulation, the California Public Utilities Commission will support FCC open internet rules and reclassifying broadband information access service (BIAS) as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act, the CPUC decided Thursday. Through a unanimous vote on the consent agenda during the state commission’s livestreamed meeting, commissioners agreed the CPUC should file comments urging the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecom service and mobile BIAS as a commercial mobile service.
DoorDash inundated Sharbell Karout with “constant calls” to his cellphone after he sold his gas station in 2021, though he never previously partnered with DoorDash for deliveries and never gave DoorDash his cellphone number, alleged Karout’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Tuesday (docket 3:23-cv-06148) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Karout estimates he received hundreds of DoorDash calls throughout 2022 and 2023 featuring the same prerecorded message over and over again, including more than 20 calls in a single day, said his complaint. Karout has repeatedly tried to block the phone numbers generating those calls but has been unsuccessful because whenever he blocks a particular number, DoorDash continues to call from new numbers, it said. The California resident has spoken to multiple DoorDash supervisors, who have repeatedly assured him that they would fix the problem, the complaint said. Despite those assurances, he continues to receive “bothersome and harassing calls” to his cellphone every day, featuring the same prerecorded message, it said. The calls violate the TCPA because they aren’t made for emergency purposes or with Karout’s prior express consent, and they use a prerecorded voice to call a number that Karout has had listed on the national do not call registry since 2007, said the complaint. Court records show that Karout’s class action is the 10th TCPA lawsuit filed against DoorDash since March 2017.
The Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum, formed after Hurricane Michael in 2018, is proving useful as a liaison between the power and communications industries, but it's probably best left alone as a voluntary effort, without formal FCC rules, speakers said Wednesday during an FCBA Homeland Security and Emergency Communications Committee lunch. During an FCC forum last year on lessons learned during disasters, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called for greater coordination between communications providers and power companies (see 2211170079).
DOD’s recent transmission to Congress of its study of the potential effects of commercial 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band on incumbent military systems likely means spectrum policy will be a larger focus during the House Communications Subcommittee’s Thursday FCC oversight hearing than earlier thought given Republican opposition to some agency actions since it gained a Democratic majority in September, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Subpanel members’ opinions about the FCC’s proceeding aimed at restoring most of its rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules and the commission’s adoption of digital discrimination rules earlier this month are still highly likely to be the central feature of the hearing (see 2311210073).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s historic fine of virtual currency exchange Binance could signal more enforcement action against fintech companies, particularly those that may be cutting corners within their sanctions compliance programs, law firms said this month. They also said the case shows OFAC may specifically be targeting companies that don’t have enough compliance buy-in from senior management.
Milwaukee and its public works commissioner, Jerrel Kruschke, unlawfully denied Verizon’s applications for permits to install small cells on newly constructed poles in the city’s Deer District, alleged Verizon’s complaint Friday (docket 2:23-cv-01581) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee.