The House Rules Committee plans a Monday meeting where it will consider whether to allow floor votes on proposed amendments to the Appropriations Committee-cleared FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773). These include proposals that would undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060). The underlying bill proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067). Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., filed a late amendment barring the FCC from using its funding to administer or implement parts of Communications Act Section 706’s presidential war powers. Those powers let the president close any broadcast station or wireline communication facility for national security or defense reasons when “there exists war or a threat of war” or another national emergency. House Rules set a Monday deadline for lawmakers to file amendments to the Appropriations-approved Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which would eliminate advance CPB funding for FY 2027 (see 2406270059).
The global outage of Microsoft systems caused by a software update from cybersecurity company Crowdstrike grounded airplanes globally and affected some broadcasters and 911 systems but spared others, reports from multiple companies and state agencies said.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The FCC Thursday unanimously approved, as expected (see 2407160048), an NPRM that proposes industry-wide handset unlocking rules, requiring all mobile wireless providers to unlock handsets 60 days after they’re activated, unless a carrier determines the handset “was purchased through fraud.” The only change of note was an edit on handset and fraud issues added at Commissioner Brendan Carr's request, an FCC official said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is revising its regulations so that export controls don’t “impede or jeopardize” U.S. participation in international standards-setting bodies and other standards-related activities (see 2406180014), the agency said in an interim final rule released July 17.
Don't expect big changes in the next-generation 911 draft order that's set for a vote during the FCC commissioners' open meeting Thursday, a 10th-floor official tells us. While the order should help facilitate the NG911 transition, a quicker route would come if Congress found the roughly $15 billion that states and localities likely need for deployment, said Jonathan Gilad, National Emergency Number Association (NENA) government affairs director. Minus federal funding, "it will always be a haves and have-nots situation," with some localities and states more financially able than others to afford the transition, he said. The FCC said the order is aimed at accelerating the NG911 rollout (see 2406270068).
FCC commissioners will vote at their Aug. 7 open meeting on an NPRM that delves more deeply into consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday. In addition, commissioners will vote on an emergency alert system code for missing and endangered persons and procedural updates to the robocall database. Commissioners will also vote on an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau and an Enforcement Bureau item.
The State Department’s recently published spring 2024 regulatory agenda mentions several rules that could update defense export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including one that would update ITAR language surrounding defense services and another to revise controls for certain circuit boards and semiconductors.
CTA and other industry groups urged that the FCC look closely at concerns raised in initial comments about rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts (see 2406140051). Meanwhile, some state attorneys general oppose industry efforts at slowing the move to require multilingual alerts. Replies were posted through Monday in dockets 15-91 and 15-94 in response to a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau (see 2405130047). The notice proposed a 30-month deadline for implementing templates in English and 13 other languages, plus American Sign Language.
The Commerce Department’s spring 2024 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security features a range of upcoming rules that could update and expand U.S. export control regulations, including new controls on the activities of U.S. persons in support of foreign military and intelligence agencies, revised regulatory language to address “diversion concerns,” new multilateral restrictions on emerging technologies and broader license requirements for Pakistan.