Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee Chair Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., said Tuesday she won’t seek reelection this year. Sinema has been a frequent foil within the Democratic caucus on telecom issues, including legislative attempts to reinstate the FCC’s rescinded 2015 net neutrality order (see 1903120078). It was also believed she was a skeptic about confirming now-former FCC nominee Gigi Sohn last year (see 2303030074). Sinema cited growing partisanship and fractiousness on Capitol Hill as the reason for her exit. “I believe in my” bipartisan approach to lawmaking, “but it’s not what America wants right now,” she said in a video message.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly picked the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals to consolidate a pair of petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 21 report and order updating the commission’s data breach notification requirements, said its consolidation order Monday (docket MCP No. 178). The Ohio Telecom Association filed its petition Feb. 20 in the 6th Circuit (see 2402210026), and the Texas Association of Business did so two days later in the 5th Circuit (see 2402230024). Both petitions seek review on grounds that the updated data breach notification rules exceed the FCC’s statutory authority.
The House Commerce Committee on Thursday will mark up two national security-related bills targeting TikTok, including one from Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
Pole owners and attachers squabbled this week over who should pay for replacing poles. The New York Public Service Commission posted comments about the New York Department of Public Service (DPS) staff’s Dec. 18 white paper that recommends one-touch, make-ready for simple attachments and other ways to update pole-attachment rules to speed broadband deployment through infrastructure process updates. Raising safety concerns, electric companies urged the PSC to reject the DPS staff’s recommendation of halting the blanket prohibition of alternative pole-attachment methods.
Lack of trained tradespeople and onerous permitting procedures could represent major challenges to broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program implementation, speakers said Tuesday at Incompas’ annual policy summit in Washington. The looming end of the affordable connectivity program (ACP) (see 2403040077) is a big wrench in the works of planned BEAD projects, said Evan Feinman, who leads NTIA's BEAD program. He said internet service providers are recalculating project costs, and many planned projects will go into the red as they receive less help covering their operating expenses.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., voiced varying levels of optimism during a Tuesday Incompas conference (see 2403050052) about the prospects that lawmakers will be able to reach a deal on stopgap funding that will keep the FCC’s affordable connectivity program running past this spring. The FCC said in a Monday update on its wind-down of the program that it will be able to provide only “partial” reimbursements for ACP in May (see 2403040077). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., highlighted their ongoing interest in enacting legislation to lift or ease permitting processes in a bid to streamline broadband deployments.
Industry widely opposes the FCC's proposal to adopt additional reporting requirements for providers as part of the commission's efforts to combat digital discrimination. Commissioners sought comment on an NPRM proposing to adopt annual reporting and internal compliance program requirements following a November order adopting rules to curb discrimination (see 2401310052). Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 22-69. Consumer advocates and state officials urged the FCC to adopt the proposed requirements and establish an Office of Civil Rights within the commission.
NTIA is facing increasing pressure from carriers for additional spectrum for full-power licensed use, and from interests favoring a more open-ended approach, especially in the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands, as the agency finalizes an implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy, due for release March 14. DOD is defending its systems in the bands targeted by carriers. Meanwhile, there are questions about how much longer Scott Harris, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, will remain at the agency after the implementation plan is released, industry officials told us.
Updates to FCC rules for full-power and Class A stations to reflect the digital transition and the broadcast incentive auction took effect Monday, said a Media Bureau public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. The update stems from a Sept. 22 unanimously approved order (see 2209290017). The changes update rules language and are largely ministerial, intended “to ensure the rules reflect the Commission’s requirements and are understandable for our licensees and the public,” the PN said.
A recent letter from Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators urging the FCC to swiftly act on Fox affiliate WTXF-Philadelphia's license renewal application was a "lukewarm endorsement" for the station, said the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 23-293 Monday. MAD and former Fox and Disney lobbyist Preston Padden want the agency to designate WTXF's license for a hearing (see 2307060065). Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, both Democrats, last month wrote a letter to the FCC supporting the station (see 2402260064): "Politicians -- even those of the highest integrity like Senators Casey and Fetterman -- don’t want to ‘piss off’ a TV station that will cover their election," Padden said in an email last week. MAD seconded the senators' call for swift action but said the agency "must first conduct a thorough investigation of the serious rule violations and character allegations" against Fox and that the FCC hasn't indicated it is conducting such a probe. An investigation would require granting MAD's request for nonpublic evidence submitted in court cases brought against Fox by voting machine companies, MAD said. "Airing of these documents is essential to the fair and neutral review that the senators request," the MAD letter said. Fetterman, Casey and Fox didn't comment.