The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing March 27 for NTIA nominee Arielle Roth, as expected (see 2503070065). The panel will begin at 2:15 p.m. in 253 Russell. Senate Commerce leaders previously eyed a mid-March hearing for Roth in tandem with Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty (see 2503060066). President Donald Trump nominated Roth, Senate Commerce Republicans’ telecom policy director, in early February (see 2502040056).
The House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee said Wednesday it plans a March 26 hearing to examine conservatives' claims that public broadcasters’ content has a pro-Democratic bias, as expected (see 2502270071). PBS CEO Paula Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher will testify starting at 10 a.m. in HVC-210. Republican lawmakers have filed several measures this year to end funding for NPR, PBS and CPB and claw back advance appropriations to the broadcasting entities (see 2502110072 and 2502120044), in part for alleged bias. PBS and other U.S. broadcasters are also facing scrutiny from the FCC via investigations that Chairman Brendan Carr has launched since taking over Jan. 20 (see 2502130060).
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a mandate Thursday closing the fight over the court’s decision against the FCC’s 2024 net neutrality order and transmitting its decision to the FCC. The mandate wasn’t a surprise. The 6th Circuit recently rejected a public interest group petition for en banc review of the decision (see 2503110050).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s letter to Google over faith-based programming (see 2503070052) goes against the intent of his “In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding and appears to be more of a political gesture than an indication of FCC action, said retired telecom attorney Jonathan Nuechterlein in a blog post Thursday for the Technology Policy Institute.
The FCC’s Wireline Bureau released a series of orders on delegated authority Thursday with the goal of making it easier for carriers to move away from legacy copper networks, said a news release and a number of filings. Outdated agency rules “have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve," said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release.
President Donald Trump’s unprecedented firing of Democratic FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter on Tuesday doesn’t necessarily mean FCC Democrats Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez are next, industry experts said. Starks has already announced plans to leave the agency this spring (see 2503180067). The two FTC Democrats have vowed to fight.
Absent more FCC action on issues such as ownership and facilitating the ATSC 3.0 transition, the broadcast industry is quickly sliding toward a "period of catastrophic decline," FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday. "We can't keep on the current trajectory" of stations closing and licenses falling into disuse, he said at a Media Institute event. The trend line on broadcaster bankruptcies is "a little bit like the beginning of a recession."
Public interest concerns and politics "aren’t mingling well these days" at the ostensibly independent FCC, wrote Clay Calvert, American Enterprise Institute nonresident senior fellow-technology policy studies. Calvert wrote Wednesday that President Donald Trump, in his legal campaign against CBS and 60 Minutes, "views his personal interest as concomitant with the statutory public interest." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr "might make such [a] coalescence a reality." Calvert cited the agency's investigation of Skydance Media's proposed purchase of CBS parent Paramount Global and how it expanded an investigation of 60 Minutes' 2024 campaign coverage. That means Trump's interests as a private litigant suing CBS over campaign coverage "are now deeply entangled with the investigatory and enforcement powers [of] a federal regulatory agency whose leader (Carr) ... the private litigant promoted."
Comments are due April 17, replies May 19, on the FCC's Further NPRM on wireless emergency alerts (WEA), in dockets 15-94 and 15-91. Commissioners approved the FNPRM 4-0 last month (see 2502270042). “The Commission proposes to broaden the circumstances in which alert originators may send WEA messages using the ‘Public Safety Message’ classification, which can allow consumers greater flexibility in how messages are presented on their mobile device, including the potential ability to silence alerts,” said a Wednesday notice from the Public Safety Bureau. “The Commission also seeks comment on whether subscribers should be empowered to further customize their receipt of WEA messages, as well as additional steps that wireless providers, equipment manufacturers, and operating system developers can take to reduce the rate at which subscribers opt out of WEA.”
NAB discussed a broadcaster alternative to GPS in meetings at the FCC about a draft notice of inquiry scheduled for a vote March 27 (see 2503060061). After conversations last week with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez (see 2503130038), the latest meetings were with staff from across the FCC's bureaus and offices. “NAB looks forward to participating in the proceeding and hopes that the Commission will move expeditiously to support broadcasters’ full deployment of Next Gen TV, which will in turn allow broadcasters to fulfill the crucial need for complementary and alternative [positioning, navigation and timing] solutions,” said a filing posted this week in docket 25-110.