The White House extended for one year beyond July 24 a national emergency that authorizes sanctions against people and entities associated with transnational criminal organizations, a July 22 news release said.
U.S. rail and steel industry groups asked the Treasury Department to sanction the China Railroad Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), saying the state-owned company is undermining the U.S. rail sector. CRRC plans to dominate the global rail market and has used state-backed financing, below-market pricing and “other anti-competitive tactics” that threaten the U.S. rail industry, the groups said in a July 22 letter. CRRC was also mentioned in a June Defense Department list of Chinese companies with ties to the country’s military (see 2006250024).
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other lawmakers expressed interest Thursday in pursuing legislation and other solutions to address what they see as a dysfunctional relationship between the FCC and other federal agencies on spectrum management. Thune later told us Capitol Hill is unlikely to address the issue this Congress given the dwindling legislative calendar. FCC approval of Ligado’s L-band plan wasn’t directly mentioned despite earlier expectations (see 2007220066).
Consumer and tribal groups asked the FCC to extend the 2.5 GHz rural tribal priority window deadline. Public Knowledge, the National Congress of American Indians, Amerind Risk Management and Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association filed an emergency motion for stay, said a Wednesday release. The pandemic “impacted American Indians and Alaska Natives on Tribal lands harder than any other community in America, a situation further aggravated by the lack of reliable broadband on Tribal lands,” the groups told the FCC: “Unless the Commission extends the Tribal Window, hundreds of eligible Tribal nations will miss this unique opportunity to provide 5G service to their people.” Chairman Ajit Pai told lawmakers in June the commission is watching the window and considering extending it past the Aug. 3 end date (see 2006300084). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel supported giving the tribes more time (see 2004290055). “My feeling from talking to the chairman's office is that it really is under consideration, so we remain hopeful,” PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld told us. One problem is that Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma is the only Capitol Hill Republican to support an extension, Feld said. “We need more Republicans to express support so this doesn't look like it's something partisan,” he said: “We had bipartisan support last year to ask the FCC to give a 180-day window rather than a 90-day window, which the FCC ultimately did, and … we need the same kind of bipartisan showing here.” The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 18-120.
Speakers offered a very different view of the citizens broadband radio service during a Connected Real Estate virtual conference Wednesday. With the CBRS auction to start Thursday (see 2007200049), there was both optimism and continuing skepticism (see 2007210052) about how much interest the band will get.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau should revise its proposed process for carrier interactions with the network outage reporting system and the 911 reliability certification system, said comments posted through Tuesday in docket 15-80. USTelecom asked to reconfigure the sequence of questions posed about whether carriers notified public safety answering points. AT&T said the proposals require carriers to send too much new information within 120 minutes. In the early minutes after discovery, "service providers are focused on restoring service and notifying PSAPs," AT&T said. NCTA wants the bureau to consider how providers would have to automate any newly required data fields, asking to "allow providers to continue using automation to the extent possible." CenturyLink said the public notice's proposal to identify alternatives shouldn't be adopted because "NORS already collects information about whether diversity could have mitigated an event." The National Association of State 911 Administrators said telling state and local governments which 911 call centers are affected by an outage "would greatly assist in determining the impact on emergency operations." ATIS said its Network Reliability Steering Committee is concerned that outage data shared with state agencies may be used for other purposes.
A Lebanese national was sentenced to 42 months in prison for conspiring to illegally export U.S. drone parts and technology to Hezbollah, the Justice Department said July 20. Usama Darwich Hamade violated the international Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Administration Regulations, the Arms Export Controls Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations when he tried to illegally export a range of U.S.-origin items, including “inertial measurement units,” digital compasses, a jet engine, piston engines and recording binoculars. During an investigation, the Justice Department said the U.S. discovered Hezbollah was the “ultimate beneficiary” of the exports.
The House began considering its FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) Monday, with anti-Ligado language intact. The House Rules Committee didn’t allow floor consideration of three proposed amendments trying to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan, despite support from committee member Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas (see 2007170059). The panel ultimately agreed to allow votes on several other tech and telecom amendments, including ones aimed at Chinese companies ByteDance and ZTE (see 2007150062).
The House began considering its FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) Monday. The Rules Committee didn’t allow floor consideration of three proposed amendments trying to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan. The panel ultimately agreed to allow votes on several other tech amendments.
The State Department published its spring 2020 regulatory agenda. The agenda includes a new mention of a final rule to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations due to changes made by multilateral export regimes. The rule would update the U.S. Munitions List and “corresponding parts of the ITAR” based on “related treaties” and export regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, that have updated their export controls. The agency is aiming to issue the rule this month.