FTC deal reviews aren’t as effective with shutdown-mandated “skeleton crews,” Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter tweeted Monday, calling it a “bad situation.” She responded to a thread from Public Knowledge Policy Counsel-Competition Charlotte Slaiman suggesting transactions can be approved by default if enforcers don’t take action. The FTC and DOJ have an initial 30 days to respond to review applications, Slaiman noted. “It’s not that folks aren’t reviewing, it’s the excellent point that this work can’t be done as effectively with a skeleton crew,” Slaughter wrote.

Judge Robert Wilkins will replace Judge Judith Rogers on the panel reviewing challenges to the FCC's net neutrality rollback order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced (in Pacer) Monday in Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051. The move doesn't affect the panel's 2-1 majority of Democratic appointees (see 1901020040): President Barack Obama nominated Wilkins and President Bill Clinton appointed Rogers. The other judges are Patricia Millett, another Obama appointee, and Stephen Williams, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Asked if the switch changed things, Andrew Schwartzman, counsel for petitioner Benton Foundation, emailed: "Not too much. ... Wilkins and Rogers are unlikely to be very different ideologically. However, he has much less of a track record on tech issues. ... He is more active in oral argument than Judge Rogers. ... When Judge Rogers presides, she is very much by-the-book. Judge Millett will now be presiding; she may be more lax about adhering to time limits." Free State Foundation President Randolph May expects the FCC would "feel more comfortable" with Rogers than Wilkins "on the theory that, in general, he may be more reflexively pro-regulatory and more likely to go along with Judge Millett. But this is really reading tea leaves at the margin.”

The head of a Georgetown Law communications and tech program and another lawyer there expect to change roles when the project gets a new chief, they told us last week. The changes are being sparked by the retirement of Angela Campbell, who for about 30 years headed at the law school the Institute for Public Representation's Communications & Technology Law Clinic. The school has been looking for a successor for some time, and Campbell hasn't decided if she will continue working at Georgetown after her directorship ends June 30. The clinic's Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Foundation senior counselor there, may also leave, he said. "My expectation is that I will do something else as of July 1." He hopes "to have continuing relationship with the Benton Foundation." The Benton Foundation "is honored to work with Andy beyond June 30," emailed Executive Director Adrianne Furniss about Schwartzman. "Among other things, Andy will continue to serve as counsel for Benton who is one of the petitioners" in the Mozilla v. FCC net neutrality case (see 1901030012), she added. Campbell expects to keep working on kids media as a Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood board member; the vice chair now, she likely will be elected chair in June. Her IPR program likely will remain involved in kidvid and political broadcast issues at the FCC and with kids' privacy and FTC Children's Online Privacy Protection Act rules. "It’s a good time while it's going well to have a transition" at IPR, she said. "There are a lot of qualified candidates out there, so I’m pretty confident it will work out well."

Former AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Bob Quinn said he joined Wilkinson Barker (see the personals section of the Jan. 4 issue) with an eye on building its privacy practice. Chief privacy officer at AT&T for five years, Quinn left in May because of controversy over the company's hiring of Donald Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen (see 1805110029). Now, Quinn said he wants to focus on privacy. “With all of the data breaches, companies have spent a lot of money in the area of cyber focused on data breach and trying to understand where their weaknesses are, because nobody wants to be the next headline,” Quinn told us Thursday. “In the area of privacy, I don’t think people have spent the money to understand what data they’re holding onto, what data they’re collecting, how they’re using it, what disclosures they’re making to consumers.” Lack of focus on the collection of data “left a bad taste in the mouth” of European regulators and that’s why they approved the EU general data protection regulation, he said. Similarly, that’s why California lawmakers approved a state privacy law last summer (see 1806280054), he said. “Ultimately, we’re going to have a federal law and right now is the time where people are really kind of screaming for more information on privacy, especially with this debate heating up in the next year on Capitol Hill,” Quinn said. “I think a privacy law is coming.” How GDPR unfolds will have an impact in the U.S., he said.

Petitioners, the FCC and DOJ proposed a 150-minute format for Feb. 1 oral argument on challenges to the commission's net neutrality rollback order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051 (consolidated). General Counsel Thomas Johnson is to argue for the commission. Responding to a court request to streamline the argument, the parties, backed by intervenors, jointly asked (in Pacer) Wednesday that each side be given 75 minutes, with challengers' time subdivided into four categories of issues, presented consecutively: (1) Communications Act Title I broadband reclassification, Section 706 and competition (25 minutes); (2) Administrative Procedure Act, Section 257, and mobile broadband (25 minutes); (3) FCC consideration of public safety and government services (10 minutes); and (4) Pre-emption of state law (15 minutes). Nongovernment petitioners and intervenors would argue the first two, represented by Pantelis Michalopoulos of Steptoe & Johnson, Kevin Russell of Goldstein & Russell and Stephanie Weiner of Harris Wiltshire; local and state government petitioners would argue the second two, represented by Danielle Goldstein of Santa Clara County, California, and Steven Wu of New York state. The FCC and ISP intervenors could address the issues in a different sequence, represented by Johnson (60 minutes) and Jonathan Nuechterlein of Sidley Austin (15 minutes). Petitioners can reserve rebuttal time. The judges hearing the case are Judith Rogers, Patricia Millett and Stephen Williams (see 1901020040).

Arizona and Iowa commissions said they're looking into the multistate CenturyLink outage that disrupted 911, joining other states making inquiries (see 1901020022) and the FCC (see 1812280033). The Arizona Corporation Commission Utilities Division opened a docket (T-01051B-19-0001) Wednesday. "Staff believes this is a public health and safety issue that should be taken seriously and addressed in a expeditious manner," said Utilities Division Director Elijah Abinah in a Wednesday letter to the company. State law requires telecom companies to notify the commission about outages, but staff isn't aware of any notification from CenturyLink -- the agency found out from a news report, he said. Abinah asked the company to detail the cause and extent of the outage and what actions CenturyLink plans to prevent future outages. The Iowa Utilities Board “is aware of the outage and is looking into the impact to Iowa customers,” its spokesperson said. The telco said it's in touch with policymakers and will cooperate with any investigation; it didn't comment further Thursday.

The FCC released an order Thursday extending by 90 days the time frame for the collecting speed test data for the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel partially dissented. Commissioners approved the order Dec. 13. The FCC didn’t comment on why it took three weeks for the order to be released. The FCC is investigating whether top wireless carriers submitted incorrect coverage maps (see 1812070048). A wireless carrier official said the order follows an August NPRM and was needed because the FCC earlier extended the challenge process window. The change allows challengers’ speed test data “collected on or after” Feb. 27, and through the entire 240-day challenge window, “to be submitted and considered with a challenge,” the order said: “Similarly, we extend by at least 90 days the timeframe for the collection of information to respond to a challenge.” Rosenworcel said the FCC’s wireless coverage maps are a “mess” and the situation is “unacceptable.” The FCC “lacks the data it should have about precisely where broadband service is and is not in communities across the country,” Rosenworcel said. “Our broadband maps are woefully inaccurate. They overstate coverage and signal strength in rural communities and understate where universal service support is needed to ensure that remote areas are not left behind.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said that four months after the FCC extended the challenge process, “we are no closer to determining which unserved areas will be eligible for MF-II support.” The FCC investigation means even more uncertainty, he said. “While I support this item’s effort to harmonize the timeframe for the collection of speed test data with the extended challenge window, our underlying mapping problems remain and, as a result, most of this item seems untimely or moot.”

RM Broadcasting should register as a foreign agent and may not be accurately representing its control over the content on WZHF(AM) Capitol Heights, Maryland, by Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya, said DOJ in filings (in Pacer) in Florida federal court Monday. WZHF broadcasts content provided by Russian radio service Sputnik. Justice has called for RM to register as a foreign agent since 2017, and RM sued DOJ over the matter in October. RM is a broker of broadcast time on WZHF and doesn’t have any control over content, said Nicole Waid, RM’s attorney with FisherBroyles, in an interview. “The allegation that RM Broadcasting engages in the ‘business of leasing broadcast airtime’ is vague and may not fully characterize the nature of RM Broadcasting's relationship” with FCC licensees, DOJ said. FCC records show WZHF is licensed to Way Broadcasting, and Waid said Way is an entirely separate company from RM. Wednesday, Way, DOJ and Rossiya Segedonya didn’t comment. “The relationship between RM Broadcasting and Rossiya Segodnya is strictly an arms-length commercial business transaction” and doesn’t involve “an agency relationship,” RM said in its complaint. Reston Translator, a broadcaster retransmitting Sputnik, reluctantly registered as a foreign agent in 2017 after similar DOJ demands (see [Ref:1712040054]). Registering as a foreign agent would allow DOJ more scrutiny of RM’s activities and make it harder for the company to do business, Waid said: “There are ramifications to registering as a foreign agent.”

The FCC extended USF operating expense relief to Mescalero Apache Telecom, finding the tribal carrier's broadband deployment level fell below a 90 percent threshold set in April (see 1804050028). Mescalero argued the percentage of housing units in its study area capable of getting 10/1 Mbps connectivity was 88.97 percent at best, noted a 4-0 commission order in Wednesday's Daily Digest approving the carrier's petition for reconsideration (see 1805310032): "We agree that Mescalero Apache fell below the 90% benchmark and should be granted relief, including the same retroactive relief granted to other carriers in the [April] Order." Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who had pushed for the 90 percent cutoff to better target relief, said he voted to grant the petition "with real trepidation regarding the precedent we set and the incentives we create." Mescalero "may be able to demonstrate that its deployment is barely under the applicable threshold, but I still struggle to make sense of why this carrier is deserving or in need of a waiver for additional opex funding," he said. The order "highlights the problem of relying on Form 477 data for purposes of providing USF subsidies -- a use for which the data was never originally intended," he said: The FCC allows Mescalero "to mount its own informal challenge, unencumbered by objective challenge process parameters. ... [T]his ad hoc approach is not sufficiently transparent, leaves too much up to discretion, and is a poor substitute for a thorough comment opportunity." The "Form 477 Data problem is very real, and we don’t help matters by foregoing a meaningful challenge process for purposes of convenience," he added. Chairman Ajit Pai had said he would seek to extend opex relief to more tribal carriers, including Mescalero and Sacred Wind Communications (see 1810050044), but a circulated draft addressed only Mescalero's petition (see 1811130063). The FCC didn't comment Wednesday on Sacred Wind's petition.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hailed apparent end Wednesday of the push for the Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval aimed at reversing rescission of commission 2015 net neutrality rules. The House held a brief pro forma session Wednesday but conducted no business amid the ongoing partial government shutdown (see 1901020048), ending the final full day of the 115th Congress. The House is expected to hold a final pro forma session at 11 a.m. Thursday, just before the formal start of the 116th Congress. Incoming House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., this Congress pushed strongly for the CRA measure (see 1811290042). “I’m pleased that a strong bipartisan majority” in the House “declined to reinstate heavy-handed Internet regulation," Pai said. Recent reports from the Fiber Broadband Association and Ookla showed “broadband speeds are up” and “fiber was made available to more new homes in 2018 than in any previous year.” A discharge petition to force a vote had support from 182 House members, below the required 218. The Senate passed the measure in May, 52-47 (see 1805160064). Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is planning a net neutrality hearing for early this year (see 1812310008). Fight for the Future, a booster of the CRA measure, acknowledged Wednesday the “clock has run out” but Deputy Director Evan Greer said the larger net neutrality effort isn't finished. “We used the CRA as a powerful tool to get lawmakers on the record,” Greer said. “If House leadership had allowed a vote on the CRA, we likely would have won that too. Instead, we used a discharge petition to get a record number of lawmakers publicly in support of strong net neutrality protections.” House Democratic leaders proposed expanding legislative days members can execute a discharge petition as part of the chamber's rules package for next Congress. The House is to vote on the rules Thursday, in the new Congress. A federal court named a panel with two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee to review the FCC net neutrality rollback order (see 1901020040).