Monday’s Supreme Court decision that the FCC is entitled to deference in interpreting ambiguous statutes about its jurisdiction (CD May 21 p1) bolsters the commission’s position in the net neutrality court battle, the FCC said in a letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. Attorneys and law professors we spoke to agree that the decision in the case, Arlington v. FCC, could help the commission -- but only if the court thinks the statutes in question are ambiguous in the first place. A Verizon spokesman said the company will file a response with the D.C. Circuit.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision that the FCC is entitled to deference in interpreting ambiguous statutes about its jurisdiction bolsters the commission’s position in the net neutrality court battle, the FCC said in a letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. Attorneys and law professors we spoke to agree that the decision in the case, Arlington v. FCC, could help the commission -- but only if the court thinks the statutes in question are ambiguous in the first place. A Verizon spokesman said the company will file a response with the D.C. Circuit.
President Barack Obama’s nominee for FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said last week he plans to sell his shares in AT&T and Verizon valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if he is confirmed, according to documents filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Wheeler said he also plans to divest his interests in nearly 80 technology, media and telecom companies within 90 days of his confirmation and recuse himself from any matters that may pose a potential conflict of interest if informed by FCC ethics officials. Wheeler, who was formerly president of CTIA and NCTA, has been attacked by some lawmakers and public interest groups for his extensive relationships and investments in companies he would likely regulate if confirmed as FCC chair. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Wheeler and a committee spokesman had no comment Friday as to when the hearing would take place.
President Barack Obama’s nominee for FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said last week he plans to sell his shares in AT&T and Verizon valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if confirmed, according to documents filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Wheeler said he also plans to divest his interests in nearly 80 technology, media and telecom companies within 90 days of his confirmation and recuse himself from any matters that may pose a potential conflict of interest if informed by FCC ethics officials. Wheeler, who was formerly president of CTIA and NCTA, has been attacked by some lawmakers and public interest groups for his extensive relationships and investments in companies he would likely regulate if confirmed as FCC chairman. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Wheeler and a committee spokesman had no comment Friday as to when the hearing would take place.
President Barack Obama’s nominee for FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said last week he plans to sell his shares in AT&T and Verizon valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if he is confirmed, according to documents filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Wheeler said he also plans to divest his interests in nearly 80 technology, media and telecom companies within 90 days of his confirmation and recuse himself from any matters that may pose a potential conflict of interest if informed by FCC ethics officials. Wheeler, who was formerly president of CTIA and NCTA, has been attacked by some lawmakers and public interest groups for his extensive relationships and investments in companies he would likely regulate if confirmed as FCC chair. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Wheeler and a committee spokesman had no comment Friday as to when the hearing would take place.
Top minority members of the House Commerce Committee objected, in a letter sent to FCC commissioners Thursday, to a recent Republican letter urging the FCC to reject the Justice Department’s advice to implement spectrum aggregation rules or caps. Democrats said (http://1.usa.gov/16CnoJ1) the GOP letter is another example of Republicans seeking to “advance a one-sided re-interpretation of the goals and meaning” of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act in an “attempt to spin the legislative history in a way that inaccurately reflects the intent of Congress in adopting these provisions.” Top Republican members of the House Commerce Committee had previously told FCC commissioners that the Justice filing wasn’t consistent with the Spectrum Act and could lead to a failed auction (CD April 23 p1).
A Colombian business owner convicted of attempting to defraud the Export-Import Bank of about $8 million -- through a scheme involving fake loan documents, deceiving wire transfers and forced defaults -- was ordered to pay more than $18 million and serve prison time, the Bank announced April 22. Juan Carlos Schwartzman, a Colombian citizen with permanent U.S. residency status, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on April 19 to 30 months in prison, plus 36 months of supervised release time and pay more than $18 million in restitution and forfeiture. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in July 2011. Schwartzman owned J.C. Schwartzman & Associates, a trade finance consulting firm in Miami and Barranquilla, Colombia. The firm assisted several Colombian buyers in obtaining lender financing guaranteed by Ex-Im, the Bank’s Office of Inspector General said in a release.
A recent filing by the Justice Department on spectrum and competition isn’t consistent with last year’s Spectrum Act, top Republican members of the House Commerce Committee said in a letter to FCC commissioners. If the commission adopts spectrum aggregation limits as part of incentive auction rules, it could doom the auction to failure, the legislators wrote.
The FCC Media Bureau granted 150 applications for new FM translator construction permits that were held up by the 2005 freeze placed on those applications from Auction 83 to allow the commission to figure out how to expand low-power FM service. The action put an end to the freeze, which was formally ended in last year’s fifth order on reconsideration, a bureau spokesperson said. Applicants who took advantage of the 2003 window for the translators have waited about 10 years for a decision on those applications. The bureau released a public notice Wednesday identifying almost 40 new translator stations that were granted (http://bit.ly/176n3vw).
The letter said Wheeler would be able to “hit the ground running” as chairman and listed his achievements in the private sector and as an advocate for the cable and wireless industries “when they were the insurgents challenging the established players.” Wheeler “has consistently fought on the side of increasing competition,” said the letter. “He understands the importance of reclaiming the pro-competition, pro-innovation, pro-growth regulatory ideal."