Telecom equipment from Huawei and other “untrusted" vendors is “a threat to the security of the U.S. and our allies,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told a news conference Wednesday. During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday, commerce secretary nominee Gina Raimondo demurred from agreeing to maintain export restrictions against Huawei and other Chinese companies imposed during President Donald Trump’s administration (see 2101260063). Senate Commerce set a Feb. 3 vote on Raimondo (see 2101270062 and our calendar). Psaki likewise stopped short of committing to keep restrictions on Huawei and other Chinese vendors. “We will ensure that the American telecommunications networks do not use equipment from untrusted vendors, and we will work with allies to secure their telecommunications networks and make investments to expand production of telecommunications equipment by trusted U.S. and allied companies,” she said.
The FCC will consider two NPRMs on defining what constitutes 911 fee diversion and modifying rules for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks reimbursement program during the Feb. 17 commissioners' meeting, a news release said Wednesday. Commissioners will also hear presentations on the emergency broadband benefit and COVID-19 telehealth programs (see 2101260053), plus efforts to improve broadband mapping data. The agency would seek comment on a proposal to raise the cap on eligibility to participate in its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks reimbursement program for providers of advanced communications service with 10 million or fewer customers. In December, commissioners voted 5-0 to put in place a system to replace insecure equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in U.S. networks (see 2012100054). The action is the FCC’s first on network security under the Biden administration, expanding the longtime focus under former Chairman Ajit Pai. The draft NPRM seeks comment on a proposal to change the acceptable use of reimbursement funds to include “the removal, replacement, and disposal of equipment and services subject to the" Huawei and ZTE designation orders and on modifying rules “to use reimbursement funds to remove, replace, or dispose of equipment or services that were purchased, rented, leased, or otherwise obtained on or before June 30.” It asks whether to replace rules with prioritization categories in the combined FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus law (see 2012220061).
The FCC should “closely scrutinize” Rural Digital Opportunity Fund long-form applications to ensure winning bidders have “technical, financial, managerial, operational skills, capabilities, and resources to deliver the services they have pledged for every American they plan to serve regardless of the technology they use,” said a NARUC draft resolution released Tuesday. Sponsored by Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley and Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Sarah Freeman, the proposed resolution would also ask the FCC to seek input as it reviews RDOF long forms. It’s the only telecom resolution scheduled for NARUC’s Feb. 4-5 and 8-11 meeting.
The FCC will focus on establishing the emergency broadband benefit and expanded support for telehealth, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told staff via a live video Monday. The agency also will continue the work-from-home procedures enacted by former Chairman Ajit Pai. “My predecessor did an exemplary job of keeping the agency staff informed and safe,” Rosenworcel said. “I want to assure you that the existing remote work policies will not be disturbed by this transition.” She said the Congress-pushed emergency broadband and telehealth matters will take up time in the next weeks (see 2101260053) but only scratched the surface of the tasks awaiting the commission. “We need to advance communications policies that keep the public safe and cybersecure,” said Rosenworcel. “We have work to do to build bridges and find common ground with our state, local, and Tribal partners.” The agency must ensure its “functional equivalency policies live up to our responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act” and work to “keep media policies current, while also honoring our longstanding values of competition, localism, and diversity.” She also referenced the digital divide and the homework gap. Rosenworcel said the FCC is “well-served” by her fellow commissioners and she “can’t wait to get started.”
Acting FTC Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter named several acting agency leadership officials Monday. Reilly Dolan will be acting general counsel after having been principal deputy general counsel. Daniel Kaufman will be acting director of the Consumer Protection Bureau, where he has been a deputy director since 2012. Maribeth Petrizzi will be acting director of the Competition Bureau, where she’s been assistant director in the Compliance Division since August 2019. Michael Vita will continue as Economics Bureau acting director. Sarah Mackey will be acting director of the Office of Policy and Planning, where she was a deputy director.
President Joe Biden “restored balance and stability” by revoking a series of executive orders affecting federal employees that “had done nothing but disrupt the workplace and disrespect career civil servants,” said the National Treasury Employees Union Friday. NTEU represents FCC employees. The executive orders in question involved union restrictions, how federal employees are classified, and their civil service protections (see 2010300048). “By revoking the orders, the Biden administration upholds the 138-year-old standard that rejects patronage and makes sure the people who carry out the day-to-day business of government are nonpartisan, nonpolitical and highly qualified for the task,” said National President Tony Reardon. NTEU had challenged the orders in court.
Nothing is pending at the Supreme Court this term that will likely lead to dramatic changes in the Chevron doctrine, but some narrowing could be inevitable, experts told a Free State Foundation webinar Friday. Courts “regard telecom as something that’s highly technocratic and that generalist judges aren’t in a very good position to answer,” said Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Law School professor. The most likely next step for SCOTUS is a reinterpretation of when Chevron should apply, he said. Any new look at the doctrine reflects growing skepticism of expert agencies, Yoo said. “We’ve seen a discrediting of expertise,” he said: “We’ve started to see agencies as captured.” The trend is for justices to be “ideologically sorted and polarized,” which is clear in appointments to the court under then-President Donald Trump, said Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro. Since becoming a justice in 2017, Neil Gorsuch “has continued his campaign against the awesome power of the administrative state, both regarding judicial over-deference to agencies and congressional over-delegation of legislative power to the agencies,” Shapiro said. “Where Gorsuch wants to pare back the scope of judicial deference, [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh has focused on the occasions where deference is applied in the first place.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett is likely to support narrowing deference, he said. Shapiro said the court could parse the difference between deference to administration agencies and independent agencies like the FCC. As the newest justice, Barrett is "a bit of a wild card,” said TechFreedom Internet Policy Counsel Corbin Barthold. Kavanaugh might want to narrow Chevron, not overturn it, Barthold said. There aren’t the votes to overturn Chevron, “but it’s still open that it might get narrowed,” he said. The court doesn’t have any cases on its current docket “that squarely raise the Chevron doctrine, but of course any case involving a government agency statutory interpretation could raise it,” said Jeffrey Lubbers, American University professor of practice in administrative law. The court heard the FCC's appeal of Prometheus IV Tuesday involving media ownership rules (see 2101190070).
FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in one of her earliest actions at the helm, pulled all items off the circulation list, the agency confirmed Friday. The webpage listing items now says, “Information is currently unavailable. Please try again later.” It’s “typical for a new chair to pull down and review all the items on circulation drafted by the prior administration,” a spokesperson emailed.
The FCC Disability Advisory Committee has been renewed and scheduled the first meeting of its fourth term virtually Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. EST (see personals section, Jan. 14 publication), said Thursday's Federal Register.
Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks criticized the FCC releasing its annual broadband deployment report Tuesday, the day before a new administration entered the White House. Rosenworcel said that it "confounds logic" to say that broadband is being deployed to "all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion," citing the continued disparity for students participating in remote learning. The Telecom Act Section 706 report concluded that using a long-term goal for broadband connectivity of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students and staff was no longer a meaningful measure of progress because 99% of school districts met its short-term goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 people. Starks said "patting ourselves on the back is particularly unseemly" and Chairman Ajit Pai's refusal to withdraw the document based on its not having legal significance is "plainly inconsistent" with the Telecom Act. Starks said the determination should have been left to the Biden administration. The agency found 3-2 that advanced telecom capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis "based on compelling evidence." The gap between urban and rural Americans with access to 25/3 Mbps fixed broadband service fell to 16 percentage points at the end of 2019, and mobile providers offered 5G to nearly 60% of the population. The commission found a decrease of more than 20% in Americans without access to 25/3 Mbps. "These successes resulted from forward-thinking policies that removed barriers to infrastructure investment and promoted competition and innovation," Pai said in his last full day as FCC chief. Commissioner Brendan Carr said that the report "confirms that our efforts have enabled the private sector to build out high-speed internet infrastructure at an unprecedented pace." Commissioner Nathan Simington didn't issue a statement.