FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel touted the agency's 2023 achievements in a Friday note, saying the commission will "be remembered for ... the policies we advanced to reflect a world where high-speed connectivity is no longer a luxury but a necessity." Rosenworcel noted nearly 7 million households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program this year, bringing the total of enrolled households to more than 22 million. "But our progress here cannot slow down," she wrote, and "we need help from Congress to keep this groundbreaking program going." In her year-end review, Rosenworcel also cited the commission's work on broadband mapping, closing the homework gap and space innovation. "I am especially excited about our proposal to harness the power of satellites to enhance mobile phone operations in areas where there is no terrestrial mobile service," she said: "This connectivity can help facilitate life-saving rescues in remote locations and the innovative opportunities it presents will only grow." The FCC's initiatives on AI also "illustrate how the commission may be using some new tactics," Rosenworcel said, "but we remain focused on long-standing priorities like consumer protection and maximizing the opportunities we have with scarce spectrum resources."

It’s a “national security imperative” that government officials can “engage with social media platforms about foreign malign influence targeting their users,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief Tuesday (docket 23-411). His brief supports government petitioners in Murthy v. Missouri who seek to vacate the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ social media injunction against officials from the White House and four federal agencies. The injunction is stayed, pending completion of the SCOTUS review (see 2310230003). If the injunction gains effect, it would bar officials from the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and the surgeon general's office from coercing or significantly encouraging the social media platforms to moderate their content. An injunction “would prevent or limit the government’s ability to communicate with social media companies,” and would leave the U.S. “vulnerable to attack,” said the brief. Foreign malign influence campaigns have grown in number, scope and sophistication since 2016, it added. Any progress gained through improved threat sharing processes “may be entirely lost if the injunction is not lifted,” the brief said. Even while stayed, the injunction has reduced the intelligence community’s threat-sharing capacity, it said.

All 56 states and territories submitted their initial proposals to NTIA for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the agency said Thursday. Proposals were due by Wednesday (see 2312210009). An entity may begin its BEAD challenge process once NTIA approves its volume 1 proposal, the agency said.

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will meet at FCC headquarters Jan. 30. It's the group’s first meeting since September (see 2309070035) and the third of its current term, according to a Wednesday notice in the Federal Register. The meeting starts at 9 a.m.

The number of consumer complaints about possible robocall or misleading and inaccurate caller identification information violations continues to drop year over year, the FCC told Congress. That information was included in the latest annual report to lawmakers on robocalls and caller ID issues, as required by the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act. The FCC's Enforcement, Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus compiled the report. Through Nov. 30, the agency received 29,038 reports of unauthorized or nonemergency calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice message. That figure compared with more than 39,000 in 2022 and better than 46,000 in 2021. It said it received 53,725 telephone solicitation complaints through Nov. 30, compared with nearly 71,000 the year before and nearly 98,000 in 2021. It said it received 13,607 complaints about noncompliant calls using a fax machine or automatic telephone dialing system through Nov. 30, compared with more than 19,500 last year and nearly 29,000 in 2021. And it said that through Nov. 30 it received 29,216 spoofing complaints, compared with nearly 40,000 last year and roughly 57,000 the year before. The agency said that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Nov. 30 of this year, DOJ collected no forfeiture penalties or criminal fines for robocall and misleading caller ID cases the agency referred to the department. "A disproportionately large number of calls" come from VoIP providers, said the FCC, which also noted that declining "call costs over the past few decades have eliminated financial barriers to entry for would-be robocallers." The report said that while industry and government collaboration "has led to a decline in the number of robocalls," the tools illegal robocallers deploy are evolving to include, for example, voice phishing attacks that use AI-powered robocalls mimicking a real conversation. Illegal robocallers often attempt to evade blocking and labeling by using VoIP services such as number rotation, the report said.

Starting Jan.15, FCC Enforcement Bureau penalties will get a boost for inflation. Penalty amounts will be multiplied by 1.03241 and rounded to the nearest dollar, an order in Friday’s Daily Digest said. The adjustments reflect OMB guidance and are in accordance with the 2015 Inflation Adjustment Act, the order said.

The Insurance Marketing Coalition is seeking a review by the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court of the FCC’s Dec. 18 order implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts (see 2312190032), said IMC’s petition Thursday (docket 23-14125). The order exceeds the FCC’s statutory authority and was adopted “without observance of procedure required by law,” said the petition. IMC wants the 11th Circuit to vacate the order, which imposes several measures, including codifying that the national do not call registry’s protections apply to unlawful text messages. IMC is filing a "protective" petition for review now "out of an abundance of caution," it said. It will file a second petition for review when the order is published in the Federal Register, it said. In an unrelated Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rulemaking earlier this year, IMC described itself as representing a cross-section of insurance industry stakeholders, “promoting compliant best practices in insurance marketing and services.” Covington & Burling represents IMC in its 11th Circuit petition for review.

The Food and Drug Administration-Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency agreement on cybersecurity guidance for medical device manufacturers and public alerts for current vulnerabilities should be updated to improve agency coordination and clarify roles, the GAO said Thursday. It said the 2018 agreement states a goal of sharing information to enhance mutual awareness, heighten coordination, catalyze standards development and enhance technical capabilities between the agencies. GAO said the agreement doesn't reflect developments since it was signed such as FDA's creating a standard operation procedure for sharing information with CISA.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Wednesday she’s rechartering the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council for another term. A primary focus of the council will be how AI and machine learning “can enhance the security, reliability, and integrity of communications networks in a nondiscriminatory, transparent, and socially responsible manner,” the FCC said. Other issues CSRIC will tackle include “the security and reliability risks unique to emerging 6G networks and the reliability of Next Generation 911 networks,” it added. The first meeting is expected in June, a year after its last meeting (see 2306260058).

The FCC will “resume” the process for issuing licenses to T-Mobile and other winners of the 2022 2.5 GHz auction following President Joe Biden’s signing of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (S-2787), a commission spokesperson emailed us Wednesday. The president's signing of S-2787 was expected (see 2312120067). House passage of the measure last week (see 2312110062) gives the FCC authority for 90 days to issue the 2.5 GHz licenses. Lawmakers viewed the legislation as a stopgap measure, required after months of stalled Capitol Hill talks on a broader package to renew the FCC’s lapsed general auction authority (see 2312040001). “We welcome” S-2787’s enactment “and hope it’s a precursor to full restoration of the FCC’s” mandate, the commission spokesperson said. The FCC can “expeditiously issue” T-Mobile the “7,000+ 2.5 GHz licenses” it won in the auction, Vice President-Federal Government Relations Tony Russo posted on X Wednesday. T-Mobile is “ready to deploy” that spectrum “and improve connectivity for millions of Americans nationwide!” S-2787 lead sponsor Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he’s “grateful to see my bill signed into law so that more Americans have the tools they need to do their jobs and grow their businesses.”