Stakeholder frustration at the FCC not releasing a draft FCC USF NPRM on setting a budget for the fund mounted after Tuesday's blog post by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly defending the rulemaking against criticism of its reported substance (see 1904020022). That evening, 16 groups wrote him to request he release "the text of the item prior to any consideration or approval of it on circulation." The office of O'Rielly, the FCC point person on the draft, didn't comment Wednesday. The groups "appreciate your recent attempts to clarify a few points regarding the item, but we need to know more," wrote the Benton Foundation, Common Cause, Common Sense Media, Communications Workers of America, Free Press, NAACP, New America Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, United Church of Christ and others. "You have suggested in the past that items on circulation should be made public." On the substance of the item, the groups wrote, "Reforms to the funding structure of USF cannot tilt so far as to undermine the core purpose of these programs: to connect all people in the United States to reasonably comparable, robust communications services." The FCC declined to comment Wednesday. Also at a congressional hearing that day, the USF budget came up (see 1904030082).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai repeatedly avoided commenting Wednesday on whether the agency, to do its job, needs more money than it sought in its $335.6 million budget request to Congress. “I want you to tell me, do you need more money?” interrupted Rep. Sanford Bishop. D-Ga., during a House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the FCC budget after Pai had several times started to say the agency would use the current request wisely. After much back and forth, Pai said the FCC could discharge its functions with the current request or additional funds.

The House Commerce Committee continued considering the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) through Wednesday afternoon, after spending hours debating and voting on a litany of Republican-led amendments that Democrats claimed were mainly aimed at stonewalling advancement of the measure. The committee was expected to have ultimately advanced HR-1644 on a party-line vote. It still needed to handle many amendments and the measure's underlying text. HR-1644 and Senate companion S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that reverses the FCC order, rescinding its 2015 rules. The bill would restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).

AT&T “will have no other choice” but to sue certain Florida local governments the carrier claims are flouting the state’s 2017 small-cells law and FCC infrastructure rulings, unless the Florida legislature passes a bill to tighten the law pre-empting local governments, said AT&T Senior Counsel Tracy Hatch Tuesday. Some members at the livestreamed House Ways and Means Committee hearing questioned the extent of problems. Oregon lawmakers weighed different ways to spur broadband deployment in another hearing Tuesday.

A Wednesday House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the FCC's fiscal year 2020 budget request is likely to provide a first glimpse at whether House Democrats live up to expectations they'll do more critical oversight hearings on the agency under their regained majority of the chamber (see 1811140055), lobbyists told us. The Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee paid only limited attention to NTIA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Patent and Trademark Office during Tuesday's hearing on the Commerce Department's FY 2020 budget request.

House Commerce Committee Republicans are likely to file “several” amendments to the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill for consideration at the committee's Wednesday markup but see virtually no chance to defeat the bill outright given prospects for uniform support from panel Democrats, said ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., in an interview. HR-1644 and Senate companion S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that reverses the FCC order rescinding its 2015 rules. The bill retroactively would restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).

As frustrated stakeholders watch an FCC drafting process that they want to be more transparent for an NPRM circulating on USF budgets, concerns about the document's details (see 1903270042) are mounting (see 1903280050). All stakeholders we interviewed this week and last wish the rulemaking had been set for consideration at a monthly commissioners' meeting, so it would be public three weeks beforehand. Or, they wanted it released another way in advance.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission opened its annual state USF investigation. Case 19-0374-T-GI will look generally at use of USF funding by eligible telecom carriers, with findings to be reported to the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co., said Thursday's order.

An NTCA official met with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks on a proposal to end USF rate floor, circulated for a vote at the April 12 commissioners' meeting (see 1903220055). “If the rate floor were to increase dramatically in coming months due to a stalled debate over how otherwise to proceed, this would cause significant harm to rural consumers,” NTCA said Thursday in docket 10-90. The harms would come from “voice telephony rates that could increase by nearly 50 percent per month” and “suppressed network investment,” the group said: “The public interest … necessitates prompt action, and the draft report and order provides the best vehicle for such action.”

The FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit it should reject as untimely a March 5 petition seeking judicial review, after the agency denied a Sandwich Isles Communications request to reconsider a 2016 order saying the Hawaiian telco must repay $27.3 million in improper USF payments it received 2002-2015 (see 1901030024). SIC said in a March 5 petition the FCC wrongly ignored a report from an independent consulting firm that it owed only $4.1 million in overpayments. “By ignoring the evidence, the FCC acted arbitrarily and capriciously,” SIC said (in Pacer, docket 19-1056). The FCC said in a filing posted Thursday that regardless of the merits, the petition for review was due at the court 60 days after the FCC released an order rejecting the telco’s claims. The window closed March 4, the regulator said: “Because Sandwich Isles failed to file its petition within the statutory filing period, this Court is ‘constrained to dismiss the untimely petition for review for want of jurisdiction.’”