Like staff at nearly every agency in Washington, FCC employees seem nervously waiting for the next moves of the Donald Trump administration and Elon Musk, even as they hunker down and continue doing their jobs, industry sources tell us. The FCC also appears to have taken further steps to comply with the White House’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts after an initial wave of announcements immediately after Chairman Brendan Carr took office.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., slammed the ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2501020047) vacating the FCC’s April net neutrality order. In a statement released Thursday, the lawmakers said, “Without net neutrality, consumers, small businesses, and innovators alike will face increased costs, reduced choice, and less competition. It is a lose-lose-lose.” They added, “This ruling upends the fundamental principle that internet service providers should not act as gatekeepers, favoring certain users, content, or services over others." Markey and Wyden said the decision also shows why the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong when it overturned the Chevron doctrine. The opinion “makes basic errors about communications technologies, neatly illustrating why expert regulators, not judges, are best positioned to make complex public policy decisions.” Andrew Schwartzman, senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, in an email wrote that the opinion “misreads” the 1996 Telecom Act “in finding that broadband internet service is not subject to the regulatory requirements of Title II of the Communications Act.” Among other concerns, “that deprives the FCC of the power to protect national security, insure that competitive broadband suppliers can have access to necessary distribution outlets and endangers wireless access programs for low-income consumers.” The “good news” was in the judges didn’t do, Schwartzman said. The three-judge panel “gave a narrow reading to the impact of the recent Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision overruling the Chevron doctrine,” he said. The court also didn’t “rely on the carriers’ ‘major question doctrine’ arguments, so that the FCC will retain the power to regulate various aspects of broadband service without future Congressional action.” But Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation director-communications policy studies, said the court offered a “straightforward reading” of the Communications Act. The opinion was “refreshing because it shows how traditional tools of statutory interpretation can be used to resolve even seemingly technical questions like the regulatory classification of broadband,” Cooper emailed: “It’s the type of decision that eluded us so long as lower courts were subject to the ‘Chevron doctrine’ and effectively required to rationalize even far-fetched agency interpretations or re-interpretations of supposed ambiguous statutory provisions.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s recent warning letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger (see 2412240021) appears politically motivated, could be read as a reversal of Carr’s past stances on sticking to the text of FCC rules and evokes the long-defunct fairness doctrine, according to former FCC commissioners, academics and attorneys we interviewed. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Carr to head the FCC.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appears intent on closing several outstanding wireless issues in her final weeks at the helm, but industry experts said it appears unlikely she will tackle controversial items or launch anything. That approach differs from the way former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai conducted business at the end of the first Donald Trump presidency.

The extent to which the U.S. Supreme Court decides the USF challenge on theoretical rather than practical grounds could have major implications for whether the court issues a decision that overturns the program's funding mechanism. The court said last week it will hear a challenge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.

The incoming Republican administration and Congress will likely work at rolling back many of the current FCC’s policies through a combination of agency action, court decisions and the Congressional Review Act (CRA), attorneys and analysts told us in interviews. The CRA's threat also will likely limit the current FCC's agenda, they said. “The CRA is kind of looming over anything the FCC wants to try to do before the administration switches over,” said Jeffrey Westling, American Action Forum director-technology and innovation.

The group behind recent FCC complaints against CBS and ABC over their news coverage filed an equal time complaint against NBC and its station WNBC New York Monday over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ weekend appearance on Saturday Night Live (see 2411040057). The complaint from the Center for American Rights echoes points first raised by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and calls for “a substantial fine” against NBC. “Broadcasters cannot abuse their licenses by airing what amounts to a free commercial promoting one candidate the weekend before the presidential election,” said CAR President Daniel Suhr in a news release. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington backed the complaint Monday, saying “I urge Commission leadership to take these credible allegations seriously,” but multiple broadcast attorneys told us NBC appears to have satisfied the FCC’s rules.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari earlier this month in a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, could have implications beyond the FCC’s legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, legal experts told us. SCOTUS began its current term Oct. 7.

The FCC released its order approving 3-2 radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of its foreign-ownership requirements. The dissents from both FCC Republicans condemn the order as a deviation from normal FCC procedure, but neither mentions by name the involvement of the Soros family in the deal, though that has been the main focus of Republican lawmakers and conservative media critical of the restructuring. Commissioner Brendan Carr previously called the waiver a “Soros shortcut.” To suggest that Audacy is receiving special treatment is “cynical and wrong,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, pointing to numerous similar grants from the FCC going back to 2018. “Our practice here and in these prior cases is designed to facilitate the prompt and orderly emergence from bankruptcy of a company that is a licensee under the Communications Act.”

After senators sent letters to all five FCC commissioners Friday calling for the agency to avoid “weaponization” of its licensing authority against broadcasters, Commissioner Nathan Simington responded, saying the FCC should renew the license of Fox station WTXF-TV Philadelphia over the opposition of public interest group the Media and Democracy Project (MAD). Letters from Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., referenced recent comments from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump against ABC (see 2409120056).