A draft White House executive order that was circulating Wednesday night would resurrect a scuttled legislative bid to preempt nonfederal AI laws by making states ineligible for some allocated funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program if they passed their own AI measures. The draft EO would require NTIA to issue a policy notice within 90 days “specifying the conditions under which States may be eligible for remaining [BEAD funding] that was saved through my Administration’s ‘Benefit of the Bargain’ reforms,” more commonly known as non-deployment funds estimated to total $20 billion.
The FCC could soon look at strengthening broadcast affiliate stations’ right to preempt network programming, Chairman Brendan Carr told a group of reporters outside an NTCA event Tuesday. In a press conference the same day, President Donald Trump suggested that Carr should take action against ABC.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr echoed President Donald Trump’s call Saturday for NBC late-night host Seth Meyers to be fired and posted a picture with Trump the next day. On Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said Meyers is suffering from an “incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome" and called his show a ratings disaster. “Aside from everything else, Meyers has no talent, and NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote.
Free State Foundation CEO Randolph May did inform Tech Freedom of his concerns that a petition last week was one-sided in its call for the deletion of the FCC’s news distortion policy, said May and some of the document’s signatories late Friday (see 2511140037). Former FCC aide Gigi Sohn, who represents the petitioners, said earlier last week that May hadn’t expressed his concerns to her but told us in an email Friday that “apparently Randy did convey to one of my colleagues his concern that the petition was one-sided.” She also pushed back on May’s concerns. “I know of no examples of Democratic FCC Chairs abusing the news distortion policy,” she said. “Whether Democratic FCC Chairs abused other rules isn’t relevant to the petition.”
Airspan filed a revised application at the FCC for a waiver to offer dual-band radios that operate across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum, similar to a waiver approved for Ericsson. Airspan's petition was posted Monday in docket 25-234. NCTA opposed the company’s earlier pursuit of a waiver (see 2507090012). The FCC “has seen deep interest by wireless providers in deployment of 5G service in both the 3450 MHz and the 3700 MHz bands, and there is an ongoing, recognized and growing need for base station and [distributed antenna system] manufacturers to support operations in these bands cost-effectively,” Airspan said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed comments in docket 25-253 Monday calling on the FCC to work with industry to remove regulatory red tape for wireline deployments. The FCC sought comment in a notice of inquiry approved in September (see 2509300063). Among other recommendations, the chamber said the agency should eliminate burdensome state requirements, including “unreasonable fees and undue restrictions on right-of-way, pole and easement access, as well as arbitrary requirements and construction restrictions.”
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty emphasized the importance of cutting red tape for building infrastructure Monday in a speech to the ITU’s World Telecommunication Development Conference in Azerbaijan. “Connectivity flourishes under pro-market policies that foster mutually beneficial innovation,” she said.
The FCC announced new deadlines Monday for a host of filings and filing categories delayed by the federal shutdown. The public notice superseded previous deadlines, making Tuesday the new due date for most filings that had been due from Oct. 1 to Nov. 17, except those singled out with different dates.
The U.S. Supreme Court appears more likely than not to grant cert to Verizon in its challenge of a September decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upholding a $46.9 million fine against the carrier for violating FCC data rules (see 2509100019), experts said. They also agreed that SCOTUS is often difficult to predict. In August, the D.C. Circuit upheld a similar fine against T-Mobile (see 2508150044), while the 5th Circuit earlier rejected a fine imposed on AT&T (see 2504180001).
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a markup session Tuesday on a set of 28 largely GOP-led broadband permitting bills, the Commerce Committee said Friday night. House Communications members traded partisan barbs during a September hearing on the measures, with Democrats saying that most of them were unlikely to be effective in speeding up connectivity buildout (see 2509180069). Tuesday's meeting will begin at 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.