Aventiv Technologies CEO Dave Abel and other executives from the company and subsidiary Securus met with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington on the FCC’s 2024 incarcerated people’s communication services (IPCS) order. Securus opposes part of the order, which it’s challenging in federal court (see 2502140049). The executives discussed “pending petitions for reconsideration, various appeals of the 2024 IPCS Order and related ongoing proceedings,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. “We also discussed the effect of the … Order on the state of the IPCS marketplace and our expectations.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr mocked singer Sheryl Crow, described former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as an expert in incompetence, and called Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., “very shifty” in a series of posts on X during the weekend, apparently defending SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Crow posted a video on Instagram that showed her Tesla being hauled away, with a caption saying she donated the money to NPR, "which is under threat by President Musk," in protest of recent efforts to defund the broadcaster. Carr reposted the video Saturday and called it an argument for why taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize NPR stations. “Bravo,” said Carr, who has opened an investigation into PBS and NPR underwriting. “Wouldn’t take too many celebrities following Sheryl Crow’s lead and selling their cars to keep NPR going without taxpayer dollars,” he added in a second post.
An emergency petition Sunday by the executive branch seeking U.S. Supreme Court intervention to block courts from interfering with the removal of the head of the Office of Special Counsel could have implications for the president’s removal power over FCC commissioners, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May in a blog post Tuesday. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris asked SCOTUS to vacate a temporary restraining order barring the removal of Office of Special Counsel leader Hampton Dellinger as “an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers.” Blocking the president from removing presidential appointees under his authority “inflicts the gravest of injuries on the Executive Branch and the separation of powers,” said the emergency petition. In it, Harris restated DOJ's argument (see 2502140047) that tenure protections for members of multimember commissions are unconstitutional. “If this view ultimately prevails in the Supreme Court, a president's authority to remove an FCC commissioner without providing any reason would be assured,” May said. The court could instead rule that Dellinger could be ousted based on language in the statute that allows the head of the Office of Special Counsel to be removed for inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty, he added. Other agencies targeted in a recent letter to Congress from the Solicitor General -- such as the FTC and the National Labor Relations Board -- are based on statutes with similar language, but that language isn’t present in the Communications Act. That could be “determinative” if a president ever tries to remove an FCC commissioner, May said. He included a disclaimer at the end of his post clarifying that he isn't advocating for White House removal of FCC commissioners.
The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative over communications effects from severe flooding in Kentucky, said a public notice Monday. The systems are active for 10 Kentucky counties: Clay, Harlan, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Martin, Owsley, Perry and Pike. A DIRS update released Tuesday showed that 0.8% of cellsites and 7,247 cable and wireline subscribers were without service in the affected areas. "With historic flooding across Kentucky, President [Donald] Trump has taken action and this evening the FCC activated our systems to ensure that communications providers support mutual aid + roaming and provide reports on the status of communications networks," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr posted on X Monday night.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday afternoon directing the FCC, other “so-called independent” federal agencies and all other executive branch entities to “submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions” to the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) “before publication in the Federal Register.” Trump said “it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch.” Then-President Bill Clinton's 1993 order that set up OIRA mostly exempted independent agencies but subjected them to some obligations.
Consumers’ Research is getting support from other right-of-center groups as it pushes a legal theory at the U.S. Supreme Court that poses a challenge to the USF's future. SCOTUS will hear FCC v. Consumers' Research on March 26, challenging the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating how the USF program is funded (see 2501090045).
The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should overturn its three-judge panel’s decision against the FCC’s 2024 net neutrality order, said an en banc appeal that Public Knowledge, Free Press, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and the Open Technology Institute jointly filed Tuesday. The 6th Circuit should grant en banc review because the January decision creates a circuit split with the 9th Circuit and the D.C. Circuit on whether broadband internet access service (BIAS) falls under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, the appeal said. The 6th Circuit panel “shoehorned its policy preferences into the law, in a slapdash and inconsistent opinion that, if left unchallenged, will eliminate the ability of future regulators to promote universal, affordable competitive broadband access,” Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer said in a statement.
As federal policymakers continue studying the lower 3 GHz band for possible reallocation for full-power, licensed use, the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) remains a critical focus, said Doug Brake, CTIA assistant vice president-policy communications, during a Technology Policy Institute webinar Tuesday. Advocates of licensed, unlicensed and satellite use said all need more spectrum as the Senate Commerce Committee prepares for Wednesday’s hearing on the topic (see 2502180058).
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us last week he is pessimistic about the chances that talks aimed at easing DOD supporters’ objections to repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other military-controlled frequencies will lead to a deal in time to allow congressional leaders to include expansive spectrum legislative language in a budget reconciliation package. Other congressional leaders in the spectrum talks noted ongoing efforts to assuage DOD backers. Lobbyists expect the DOD factor to come up repeatedly during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on spectrum legislative issues (see 2502130041).
Broadcasters’ legal challenge of the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review (QR) order is set for oral argument in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on March 19, said a filing in docket 24-1380 Friday. Petitioners Zimmer Radio, Nexstar, NAB, Beasley Media and Tri-State Communications have argued that the order violated the Communications Act because it didn’t roll back any broadcast ownership rules and ignored the increased competition faced by broadcasters. The FCC has previously argued in the case that the law doesn’t compel it to deregulate and that broadcasters haven’t shown that they face competition in local programming, but that could change under the agency’s new leadership. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr dissented from the QR order as a commissioner, calling its view of competition “ostrich-like.” Earlier this month, the agency kicked off oral argument over workforce diversity data collection by announcing it wouldn’t defend portions of the order (see 2502040061), which Carr also opposed as a commissioner.