Trent McCotter, the lawyer for Consumers’ Research, faced tough questions during lengthy oral arguments Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court on the group’s challenge of the USF contribution factor and the USF in general. Sarah Harris, acting U.S. solicitor general, vigorously defended the USF on behalf of the government. Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy, a high-profile conservative appellate lawyer, represented industry defenders of the USF.
With SES and Intelsat hoping to close the former's purchase of the latter by June, the companies met with FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz to discuss the deal's rationale and benefits. In a docket 24-267 filing Tuesday, they recapped a meeting with Schwarz where they said that building scale is necessary to compete in the satcom marketplace.
EchoStar disagreed sharply with a recent NCTA study that raised concerns about proposals to relax in-band emissions limits in the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2503060016). Other technical studies “disprove NCTA’s arguments that there is a binary choice between high power use and protecting [general authorized access users], sharing, and incumbents,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-258. EchoStar’s studies show that power levels and “updating the in-band and out-of-band emission limits will increase spectrum utility without harming federal or commercial incumbents,” EchoStar said, recapping its meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
Deregulation of the telecom industry “is key” to making the industry more competitive and reducing the price of service, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. Hudson said his goals are to also “modernize and streamline rules so that the telecom industry in America can thrive.” BEAD and other federal programs were supposed to help close the digital divide, “but they’re being slow-rolled over onerous requirements and regulations.”
The government has “no business” forcing companies to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in a speech Tuesday to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Summit. “The hard-fought lessons of the civil rights movement are being erased -- or worse, distorted -- to claim that fairness for all requires discrimination against some. That could not be further from the truth.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is planning to warn Disney that the FCC will be scrutinizing its diversity programs, he said in an interview Tuesday with Punchbowl News.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson defended President Donald Trump's firing of the commission’s two Democrats during a speech at the Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. Ferguson also espoused a theory on executive power that the president may remove commissioners and install supporters on what Trump has termed “so-called” independent commissions. When Americans choose a president, “we are electing the person who is going to be able to supervise the entire government, not parts of the government,” Ferguson said.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, praised Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a Free State Foundation event Tuesday for moving toward what he hopes will be a major overhaul of NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program. Other panel members told us they plan to grill agency administrator nominee Arielle Roth on the issue during her Thursday confirmation hearing. Lobbyists we spoke with expect Roth will face heat from Senate Commerce Democrats on BEAD because she's the committee Republicans’ telecom policy director, but they don’t believe this means the nominee will face an otherwise contentious reception. Thursday's hearing is set for 2:15 p.m. in 253 Russell.
A broad swath of commenters from all over the political spectrum condemned the FCC’s news distortion proceeding as unconstitutional in comments filed by Monday’s deadline, while the complainant, the Center for American Rights, insisted the proceeding against CBS is justified. The FCC should use the Skydance/Paramount deal to “address the deeper disease” of “relentless bias” by CBS, CAR said.
On the eve of a key U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the USF's future, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said questions remain about the program's survival. How USF is paid for has to change, Carr told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. He also said he supports President Donald Trump's dismissal of Democratic commissioners at the FTC.