Senate GOP leaders are aiming to confirm FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr to a second full term this week via unanimous consent, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday. The committee advanced Starks' nomination on a voice vote. Senate confirmation of Starks this week is seen possible, in line with expectations Thune was aiming to fast-track the nominee (see 1806200055). Starks would succeed former Mignon Clyburn, who left the commission earlier this month (see 1806070041). Starks would have a term ending in 2022, and Carr's additional five-year term would end in 2023.

The FCC extended a deadline from July 2 to Aug. 1 for Alaska Plan middle-mile data filings with maps of fiber and microwave networks used to serve customers with high-cost USF support, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 16-271. Separately, comments are due July 26, replies Aug. 10 on a video relay service provider waiver request to serve new users, or those ported from other providers, while verification is pending through a telecom relay services user registration database (see 1806210011), said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs PN in docket 03-123.

The FCC issued an order raising by 43 percent a USF Rural Health Care Program cap to $571 million to account for 20 years of inflation and address a funding shortfall in the face of rising demand. With the unanimous order released Monday in docket 17-310, "the FCC takes swift and long-overdue action to address this critical funding crisis," said Chairman Ajit Pai. He and Commissioner Brendan Carr said other steps would provide longer-term certainty. The agency ordered the budget cap be adjusted annually for inflation, with a process to carry forward unused funds from past funding years for future use. The order is "a first step in a much-needed process to revamp the program to ensure that it is operated in a predictable, sustainable, and accountable manner," said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who said "there is much more to do." He also said the order "highlights the need for an overall cap" on USF. He said the FCC should work with other agencies "to determine how our rather narrow telemedicine program works within the larger health care system." He said the FCC doesn't get credit for RHC Program benefits to other agencies. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said: "While injecting more funding into the program is the right call, we need to acknowledge our actions here are no more than a short-term band-aid. If we want this program to truly thrive, it is going to require more long-term care and attention." Pai's draft order (see 1806060057) received votes of all colleagues recently (see 1806140017 and 1806190063).

The draft NTIA Reauthorization Act at first blush is a largely uncontroversial, but its future prospects and final form may depend partly on whether it gets bipartisan support, communications sector lobbyists told us. A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the draft may give a better sense of where Democrats stand, lawmakers and lobbyists said. The legislation would allocate NTIA $50.8 million a year for FYs 2019-2021 (see 1806200038). The hearing begins at 1:15 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel voted for a USF rural healthcare cap hike, from $400 million to $573 million, an aide told us Tuesday. Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to index the program for inflation, including retroactively, already received the votes of his fellow Republican commissioners (see 1806060057 and 1806140017). The draft order wasn't released.

AT&T and Verizon opposed and others supported a CenturyLink petition asking the FCC to allow local carriers and VoIP partners to collect higher end-office switching charges in certain cases even if the VoIP providers don't control last-mile facilities. Separately responding to an NPRM, rural telcos backed giving certain RLECs an option to shift their business data service offerings from rate-of-return regulation to incentive-based price caps, while AT&T and Sprint urged the FCC to ensure such price caps are set appropriately. Comments were due Monday on the CenturyLink petition in docket 01-92, and on the NPRM in docket 17-144.

T-Mobile buying Sprint is important to overall wireless industry competition and good for consumers, said their 678-page public interest statement posted by the FCC Tuesday, as expected (see 1806180044). The transaction is now formally before the FCC. The two promise the new T-Mobile will spend $40 billion to combine their networks into a “robust, nationwide world-class 5G network.” CEO John Legere blogged the new company is poised to take on cable and Dish Network, not just other wireless carriers. Early indications are the deal will face some of the same opposition at the FCC that greeted AT&T’s failed buy of T-Mobile.

The Lifeline national verifier is operational in Utah and five other “soft launch” states, the FCC announced Monday. Universal Service Administrative Co. got Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) accreditation Friday, said USAC Communications Director Jaymie Gustafson in a Monday interview. The reveal surprised observers, coming less than a week after the USAC official told a Utah Public Service Commission workshop the release date was unknown. Growing delay brought scrutiny from states and others (see 1806070022), as has an FCC proposal to cut Lifeline support to resellers (see 1806150048).

An FCC draft item was sent to commissioners Thursday on jurisdictional separations and referral to the federal-state joint board, said the agency's circulation list updated Friday. It's a Further NPRM, said a spokesman. The list also contains an item that circulated June 11 on promoting telehealth in rural America, which the spokesman said is Chairman Ajit Pai's draft order to hike a USF Rural Health Care Program spending cap. It has majority support (see 1806140017).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended the agency's Lifeline USF actions and proposals to lawmakers who voiced concern about their ramifications for the low-income subsidy program. "I am committed to bridging the digital divide, and, like you, I believe the Lifeline program can help do just that," he wrote, responding to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and four colleagues in an exchange posted Friday in docket 18-5. He said a November order "seeks to focus Lifeline support where it is most needed and incentivize investment in networks that enable 21st century connectivity for all America" (see 1711160021). But he's also "committed to ensuring that the Commission fulfills its obligation to be a responsible steward" of USF by strengthening Lifeline's "efficacy and integrity by reducing the waste, fraud and abuse that has run rampant in this program for the better part of a decade." An accompanying NPRM "sought comment" on various "measures to improve" program administration, "from re-empowering state commissions to police Lifeline carriers to partnering with states to stand up the National Verifier, from improving program audits to adopting a self-enforcing budget." He sent the same response to Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., (here), and similar responses to Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Robert Casey, R-Pa., (here) and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., (here). "I agree with you that the National Verifier will be one important tool in eliminating this waste, fraud, and abuse. But it is not the only one, nor will it solve all the problems with the program. It simply isn't prudent to sit idly by when hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake," he told the last three. Pai also defended, in a response to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., (here) the FCC's Lifeline tribal changes, which he said will spur broadband investment while preserving basic support for low-income Native Americans.