FCC members and others ramped up rhetoric on a draft NPRM on a potential USF budget, which hasn't been made public. The commission declined to comment. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, the point person on the rulemaking, is "troubled by early critiques of this item," he tweeted Thursday. "Beyond not having read it, these people don’t seem to have any idea what they are talking about. Shocking for DC, I know." Three of four "USF programs already have hard spending caps & the other has a soft cap requiring Commission action if it were exceeded," he said. "An overall cap doesn’t add new budgetary pressures than those that already exist!" He said, "Instead, an overall cap will force the Commission to seriously grapple with the consequences of raising an individual program’s cap for the total fund, and more thoughtfully confront how it spends consumers’ hard-earned dollars." Commissioner Geoffrey Starks tweeted, "How can we talk about capping our Universal Service programs at a time when the Commission doesn’t seem to have a good handle on who currently has broadband and who does not?" The reported proposal (see 1903270042) "to cap USF funding directly contradicts Chairman [Ajit] Pai’s oft-repeated mantra that his primary focus is to close the digital divide," said Public Knowledge Communications Justice Fellow Alisa Valentin. "Congress has long directed the Commission to ensure that every American has access to essential communications services." Benton Foundation Executive Editor Kevin Taglang said, "We can’t extend broadband’s reach throughout rural America with a USF cap." It's "premature" to consider capping Lifeline, one part of USF, said National Consumer Law Center Staff Attorney Olivia Wein. This would "unnecessarily ration Lifeline support," she added.

A draft NPRM on the USF budget asks some questions that concern stakeholders inside and outside the FCC. Others welcomed a look at the program's spending, since it has been some time since this area was examined through such a proceeding. The NPRM circulated Tuesday to commissioners asks many questions, isn't overly long and doesn't draw tentative or other conclusions, agency officials told us Wednesday. Some saw signals of where an eventual order might go in the NPRM's questions. They fear the potential for eventual spending curbs via what could be the first-of-a-kind-cap.

The House Communications Subcommittee advanced the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) Tuesday on a party-line 18-11 vote, clearing the way for a likely full House Commerce Committee vote on the bill next week. HR-1644 and Senate companion S-682, filed earlier this month, would add a new title to the Communications Act that says the FCC order rescinding its 2015 rules "shall have no force or effect." The bill retroactively would restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).

Texas telecom providers opposed a state bill to expand state USF to rural broadband, at a livestreamed House State Affairs Committee hearing Monday. Phone companies said they’re open to a separate bill allowing rural electric cooperatives to provide broadband. The committee took testimony but didn’t vote on those and multiple other broadband bills at the hearing, continuing late into the afternoon.

A Trump administration supply chain security executive order addressing use of telecom equipment by Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE in U.S. networks appears to be off the table, at least for now, experts said. The administration apparently is concerned about questions by small carriers that have equipment from two providers embedded in their networks. The FCC also hasn't acted.

An FCC order on the upper 37 GHz band, teed up for the April 12 commissioners' meeting, shows the length the agency will go to clear spectrum for 5G, as an ongoing auction tops $1 billion. The FCC proposes rules for coordinating with DOD on future use of the upper 37 GHz band beyond current DOD sites located there. The plan “strikes a reasonable balance,” said the draft order posted Friday. Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled the agenda Thursday (see 1903210062).

GCI said rate guidance in a February FCC Wireline Bureau public notice on a rural healthcare telecom program doesn't "reflect sound or consistent economic principles, and is therefore counterproductive and could both increase costs to [USF] and decrease participation," in a meeting with Office of Economics and Analytics staff including acting Chief Giulia McHenry. The letter was attached to one posted Thursday in docket 17-310 on meetings with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, where the same points were discussed. GCI petitioned the bureau Monday to reconsider the PN's guidance (see 1903190019).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the April 12 commissioners’ meeting will focus on 5G for a second straight month. It includes the public notice for the auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and a plan for sharing the 37 GHz band between industry and DOD. 5G is “the next big thing in wireless,” Pai blogged. He plans votes on nixing a rural telco USF rate floor and granting part of a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from certain structural-separation and reporting duties. And there's a media modernization item, among others in the pipeline (see 1903210072).

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr confirmed he's focusing on federal rules that affect wireless infrastructure deployment, in remarks Wednesday at WISPAmerica in Cincinnati. It's expected to be a big FCC infrastructure focus (see 1902200048). “We will look to fully and faithfully implement the decisions Congress has made to streamline the deployment of next-generation technologies,” Carr said. “We will push the government to be more pro-infrastructure by eliminating needless restrictions on siting wireless facilities.” He highlighted at the Wireless ISP Association conference the work the FCC has done, including two orders and the trips he made to see deployment across the U.S. While working on the September order, “I was struck by the difference between the attitudes of civic leaders in some of our biggest coastal cities and those leaders elsewhere in the country,” Carr said. “A few of the big city mayors recognize that they have leverage over the buildout of broadband. If you’re in New York City or San Jose in Silicon Valley, you might get robust broadband service almost regardless of what the politicians do.” Carr said he's also focused on USF support for broadband and getting more spectrum in play, especially the C-band. The Carr road trip continues. Carr tweeted Wednesday about a visit to Tuf-Tug, an Ohio plant that makes safety bolts used in towers. With 5G rolling out, the company says orders are up 25 percent over the past two years, he said.

Commenters backed an FCC proposal to eliminate an E-rate amortization rule it already waived for the duration of a rulemaking (see 1901310061), with rural telcos suggesting steps to prevent overbuilding of subsidized broadband networks. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition endorsed earlier State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance support for scrapping the requirement that schools and libraries amortize over three years upfront, nonrecurring charges of $500,000 or more, including for "special construction" projects. "Requiring service providers to recover their costs over several years could discourage broadband providers from submitting bids for E-rate services," SHLB filed. Comments were posted through Tuesday in docket 19-2. The American Library Association (here), Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology, New Mexico's Public Schools Facilities Authority (here), NTCA and three Texas rural telcos also backed the proposal. The IDIT cited "low" risk that large "Category One" special construction projects providing connectivity to schools and libraries would leave insufficient E-rate funding for "Category Two" internal-connection requests. If the FCC is concerned, the Illinois department suggested a "cap on individual funding commitments for Category One non-recurring, one-time upfront special construction charges in the range of $30 million of the total project cost." NTCA said the FCC should promote better coordination between USF programs and ensure that existing rural broadband investments backed by high-cost subsidies "are not put at risk via duplicative overbuilding." Similarly, Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Peoples Telephone Cooperative and Totelcom Communications urged new competitive bidding safeguards to "discourage overbuilding of existing federally supported fiber networks."