President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to nominate Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty to the FCC seat that current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will vacate Jan. 20. Multiple former FCC officials and communications sector lobbyists told us they expected Trump would also announce as soon as Thursday that Senate Commerce Committee Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth is his pick for NTIA administrator. A range of ex-FCC officials and other observers previously named Trusty and Roth as top contenders for the Rosenworcel seat, although some believed Roth’s ties to Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made her a slight front-runner (see 2412110046).
The Senate voted 83-12 Monday night to invoke cloture on the House-passed FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) with language that would authorize the AWS-3 reauction to offset $3.08 billion in funding for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412110067). The chamber hadn't scheduled a final vote on the measure as of Tuesday afternoon, but it's expected to happen Wednesday. Meanwhile, House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., hailed the chamber's passage Monday (see 2412160062) of the Promoting U.S. Wireless Leadership Act (HR-1377), an amended version of the Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act (HR-3293) and Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act (HR-3343). “Bureaucracy and red tape have stopped too many Americans from accessing high-speed broadband,” Rodgers said. “I am proud of the work" of House Commerce members “to advance bipartisan priorities to speed up broadband deployment and close America’s digital divide. I want to thank these members for their commitment to these bills that will promote innovation and support American technological leadership in years to come.”
Four lawsuits against the FTC’s click-to-cancel rule will be consolidated into a case before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) said Thursday in its consolidation order (see 2411210035 and 2411070025). NCTA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Electronic Security Association filed one of the lawsuits with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce filed a suit with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The National Federation of Independent Business and the Michigan Press Association filed a lawsuit with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Custom Alarm filed a lawsuit with the 8th Circuit. The 8th Circuit was “randomly selected” for the consolidation, the JPML said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is warning NTIA that Congress will “review the BEAD program early next year,” when Republicans will control both chambers, and plan to pay “specific attention to” program requirements that have drawn GOP ire. Congressional Republicans are likely to at least pursue a revamp of BEAD to rein in what they view as NTIA’s flawed implementation of the $42.5 billion initiative, while a clawback of program funds is less likely (see 2410210043). Drew Garner, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society director-policy engagement, pushed back Friday against criticisms Cruz separately leveled at NTIA's notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for its $1.25 billion digital equity competitive grant program (see 2411210041).
The FCC submarine cable NPRM now asks about ensuring cable licensees don't use equipment or services from entities on the agency’s covered list of organizations that pose a U.S. security threat. Commissioners at their open meeting Thursday unanimously approved the subsea cable NPRM, as expected (see 2411120001), as well as a robocall third-party authentication order. They also approved 5-0 an order creating a permanent process for authorizing content-originating FM boosters, which let broadcasters geotarget content within their broadcast reach for up to three minutes per hour (see 2411140053). The meeting saw the four regular commissioners praise Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who said Thursday she would step down Jan. 20, the date the next presidential administration takes power. Minority Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is slated to become chair (see 2411180059), discussed his agenda with media (see 2411210028).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday night to stand down from working on controversial matters during the transition from President Joe Biden to President-elect Donald Trump, as expected (see 2411060042). Cruz's “pencils down” request to Rosenworcel followed a similar Wednesday call from House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the favorite to lead the agency when Trump takes office in January, backed a pencils-down call Thursday (see 2411070046).
The FTC is breaking the law by refusing to follow statutory mandates that would allow consolidation of lawsuits against the agency’s new click-to-cancel rule, said NCTA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Electronic Security Association in a filing this week (see 2410240001).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday night to stand down from working on controversial matters during the transition from President Joe Biden to President-elect Donald Trump, as expected. Cruz's “pencils down” request to Rosenworcel followed a similar Wednesday call from House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the favorite to lead the agency when Trump takes office in January, backed a similar pencils-down measure Thursday.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and two other panel Republicans are claiming that the Commerce Department’s Project Local Estimates of Internet Adoption is “manipulating census data to suppress the number of American households connected to high-speed internet via wireless and satellite technologies,” an omission that appears “politically motivated to disenfranchise alternative satellite broadband providers.” The Project LEIA website “claims its estimates offer reliable data on internet adoption for all U.S. counties,” but “it fails to mention the exclusion of millions of American households who rely on wireless and satellite technologies for internet access,” Cruz and the other GOP senators said in a Thursday letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and Census Bureau Director Robert Santos. Cruz and the other senators, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, said the Project LEIA omissions are aimed at hurting SpaceX’s Starlink. They compare the act to an earlier FCC decision to bar Starlink from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (see 2312140048) to punish CEO Elon Musk. “This omission results in systemic undercounting and data bias. When the data are wrong, policy outcomes will inevitably suffer.” It “underscores the current administration’s prioritization of politics over sound policy -- an approach that has sabotaged” the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program “and perpetuates misinformation about broadband in America,” the senators said in the letter, released Friday. They want Davidson and Santos to respond by Nov. 14. NTIA has “received the letter and will respond through the proper channels," a spokesperson emailed. The Census Bureau didn’t comment.
Commerce’s proposed restrictions on sales or imports of connected vehicles using hardware or software tied to Russia or China (see 2409220001) is seeing pushback from communications and tech industry and adjacent groups over the compliance deadlines. Comments in the NPRM (docket 240919-0245) were due Monday. Some see the Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) NPRM as pointing toward a wider eventual campaign against all connected Chinese and Russian devices (see 2409250006).