Preempt California's regulatory framework for VoIP services, the Cloud Communications Alliance and Cloud Voice Alliance asked the FCC in a petition for declaratory ruling filed Monday (see 2501240002). The California Public Utilities Commission’s pending proceeding on the issue "conflicts with federal policies designed to promote competition, innovation, and affordable communications services," the groups said. They also asked that the FCC reaffirm its "end-to-end jurisdictional analysis as the definitive standard for determining the regulatory treatment of VoIP services."
In a statement Tuesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr condemned proposed FCC rules on siting wireless and broadcast towers, small cells and other facilities in flood plains as the previous administration's attempt “to double down on broken environmental laws that benefit nobody but special interests.” The statement doesn't specifically identify its subject as the flood plain rules but an FCC spokesperson confirmed it refers to them. Those rules were stalled on circulation since 2022 (see 2204110047) and were among those recently pulled in a purge of agency items on circulation (see 2501270055). “It is time for America to build. It is time to unleash the growth and opportunity that has been stifled by misguided and outdated infrastructure policies,” Carr said. “Ending the FCC’s consideration of this Biden-era proposal is just an initial step.” He added, “I look forward to working with my colleagues and stakeholders to ensure that the federal government does not stand in the way of America’s broadband builders and the important work they have ahead.”
A White House executive order on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs could lead to telecom companies abandoning such efforts, causing a rollback of progress on diversity, said industry executives and public interest attorneys during a FCBA panel discussion Tuesday. There is “fear and chaos” in “lots of corridors and hallways of corporate America” over the DEI executive order and anticipation of future White House action in that vein, said Clint Odom, T-Mobile vice president-strategic alliances and external affairs and a former FCC aide. “The world seems to be lining up between the companies that are doing DEI and the companies that are retreating from it.”
If the U.S. Supreme Court uses the FCC USF case as a route for establishing a judicial test about the nondelegation of power, that test should consider the nature of the power being delegated, legal academics say. A Federalist Society panel discussion about the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program and subsequent SCOTUS appeal (see 2411220050) saw speakers discussing how courts have looked at Congress' delegation of its powers to other branches or agencies and the high court's available options.
Securus urged the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to transfer to the 5th Circuit the company’s challenge of the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022, which reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039). Securus and various states disagreed sharply with public interest groups about whether the rates set were too low or potentially too high.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted an administrative stay late Tuesday afternoon that temporarily blocked a White House OMB memo, which called for a freeze on most federal grants and loans, from going into effect. The Trump administration memo already faced an array of legal challenges, including a planned lawsuit from a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Broadband officials and industry advocates raised questions about the memo's constitutionality and the future of certain FCC programs, such as Lifeline. Others warned the freeze could have serious implications for NTIA's BEAD program.
The effective date of the one-to-one robotext consent order was pushed off a year, to Jan. 26, 2026, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Acting Chief Eduard Bartholme said in an order in Monday's Daily Digest. Issued Friday, the order cited a pending judicial review of the policy. Also on Friday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found for the appellant, Insurance Marketing Coalition, in its suit challenging the order (see 2501240068). The 11th Circuit vacated part of the order and remanded it to the FCC for further proceedings. Decisions from the 11th Circuit "will hurt consumers, small businesses and the American phone system,” Electronic Privacy Information Center lawyer Chris Frascella said in a joint statement Monday with Public Knowledge and the National Consumer Law Center. “This is particularly disheartening because the rule was a very simple but impactful protection: companies could only sell your consent to receive robocalls if you provided an individual record of consent (e.g. a checkbox) for each company you consented to receiving robocalls from," Frascella said.
Broadband VI (BBVI) held a successful meeting with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Public Works (DPW) and restarted some of its work there under the Connect USVI Fund, the provider told the FCC. The DPW issued a stop work order Nov. 21 and “was refusing to move forward with any additional permits,” said a filing last week in docket 10-90. After meeting with the company, the DPW commissioner agreed that BBVI can “expeditiously resume work in the DPW approved areas,” the provider said. BBVI will also regularly meet with DPW officials “to resolve any remaining discrepancies between the parties.”
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., led refiling Monday of the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act. The measure, which the House passed last year (see 2409100039), would require the FCC to publish a list of communications companies holding FCC licenses or other authorizations in which China and other foreign adversaries’ governments possess 10% or more ownership. House leaders also included the measure’s language in an unsuccessful December continuing resolution (see 2412180033). Rep. Thomas Kean, R-N.J., and three other lawmakers plan to bow a House companion, Fischer’s office said. “Authoritarian regimes like China and Russia are actively working to undermine the security of our domestic communications,” Fischer said in a statement. “My bill will better position the FCC to evaluate the risks foreign ties pose to America’s national security so that we can respond to these network infrastructure threats.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday he and 12 other panel Republicans filed a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval Monday to undo a July 2024 FCC order that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services, as expected (see 2501160039). Cruz has repeatedly opposed proposals expanding E-rate’s scope to pay for off-campus hot spots (see 2307310063). The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tossed Maurine and Matthew Molak's challenge to the July order (see 2409260046) but is still reviewing another case the couple brought against the FCC’s 2023 declaratory ruling (docket 23-60641) clarifying that Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose eligible for E-rate funding. Cruz said in a statement that the CRA resolution aims to “reverse the Biden FCC’s overreach and put parents back in control of their children’s online access.” Every “parent of a young child or teenager either worries about, or knows first-hand, the real dangers of the internet,” Cruz said. “The government shouldn’t be complicit in harming students or impeding parents’ ability to decide what their kids see by subsidizing unsupervised access to inappropriate content.” Other Republicans who co-sponsored the CRA resolution include Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi.