AI poses potential competition challenges and countries must work together to address them, DOJ, the FTC, the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said in a joint statement Tuesday. “We are working to share an understanding of the issues as appropriate and are committed to using our respective powers where appropriate,” they said. There are risks companies “may attempt to restrict key inputs for the development of AI technologies” and those “with existing market power in digital markets could entrench or extend that power in adjacent AI markets or across ecosystems,” the entities said. Lack of choice for content creators among buyers “could enable the exercise of monopsony power,” they said: AI also “may be developed or wielded in ways that harm consumers, entrepreneurs, or other market participants.” FCC commissioners are expected to vote at their Aug. 7 open meeting on an NPRM examining consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls (see 2407170055).
Consumer and public interest advocates opposed a push in the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court by a group representing lead generators and their clients aimed at overturning the FCC’s Dec. 18 robocall and robotext order. The order was approved 4-1, with Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting. It clamps down on the lead generator (LG) loophole (see 231208004) and will become effective in January unless the court intervenes.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed NPR Tuesday for information about its funding sources amid the House GOP's push to end CPB’s advance funding for FY 2027. Thus far no lawmakers have tried stopping the House from moving forward on the Appropriations Committee-cleared Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which excludes advance money for the broadcasting network. House leaders meanwhile pulled the Appropriations-approved FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773) from planned floor consideration Monday, delaying potential floor votes on filed amendments that seek to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060).
The House Rules Committee plans a Monday meeting where it will consider whether to allow floor votes on proposed amendments to the Appropriations Committee-cleared FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773). These include proposals that would undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060). The underlying bill proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067). Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., filed a late amendment barring the FCC from using its funding to administer or implement parts of Communications Act Section 706’s presidential war powers. Those powers let the president close any broadcast station or wireline communication facility for national security or defense reasons when “there exists war or a threat of war” or another national emergency. House Rules set a Monday deadline for lawmakers to file amendments to the Appropriations-approved Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which would eliminate advance CPB funding for FY 2027 (see 2406270059).
Congressional GOP leaders demanded Thursday that the FCC and other independent agencies adhere strictly to its narrowed leeway of interpreting federal laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision and other recent rulings that rein in federal agencies (see 2407080039). House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky pressed the FCC, FTC and Commerce Department to understand the “limitations” Loper “set on your authority” given it overruled the Chevron doctrine. Meanwhile, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr pooh-poohed critics of Loper who argue it hamstrings regulatory agencies. Communications-focused lawyers at an Incompas event eyed a range of legal challenges to recent FCC actions that could face improved prospects because of Loper.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., remain opposed to the Kids Online Safety Act, which is preventing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from moving the bill by unanimous consent (see 2406200053).
The FTC and DOJ should investigate the AI-related dominance of companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote the agencies Friday. The largest tech companies are entrenching their dominance in the “nascent generative AI industry” through “partnerships, equity deals, acquisitions, cloud computing credits, and other arrangements,” they wrote. It’s good the FTC and DOJ are probing the AI ecosystem, but “it has become clear that sustained, pointed action is necessary to fight undue consolidation across the industry.” The legislators called for an investigation of a recent deal between Amazon and AI startup Adept and how Amazon avoided potential agency oversight. “This strategic deal is the latest in a string of arrangements among tech firms that have created an entire generative AI industry centered around massive consolidation,” Wyden’s office said. The agencies confirmed receiving the letters but declined comment.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could serve as a one-stop “clearinghouse” for industry stakeholders to report cyber incidents, Paul Eisler, USTelecom's vice president-cybersecurity and innovation, said Thursday. Eisler discussed CISA’s proposed cyber incident reporting rules during a USTelecom webinar. He noted the telecom sector reports cyber incidents to a long list of agencies, including the FCC, FTC, DOJ, SEC and state government entities. Having cyber officials fill out “five different” reports for one incident distracts them from fending off future attacks, he said. There needs to be “concrete, tangible” steps to address solutions after an incident, he said. USTelecom, NCTA and Microsoft filed comments in CISA’s latest round of public comments on the proposed regulations (see 2407030059).
Donald Trump recently has distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 manifesto (see 2407050015), but its authors are his close policy advisors. Accordingly, his election would likely mean chaos for the federal bureaucracy, including agencies like the FCC, FTC and the NTIA, experts said. As many as 50,000 federal employees could lose their jobs if a Trump administration cleans house, experts told us. Project 2025 includes a chapter on the FCC that Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote. Carr is considered the favorite to become FCC chair if Trump wins (see 2407120002).
Expect a Donald Trump White House and FCC to focus on deregulation and undoing the agency's net neutrality and digital discrimination rules, telecom policy experts and FCC watchers tell us. Brendan Carr, one of the two GOP minority commissioners, remains the seeming front-runner to head the agency if Trump wins the White House in November (see 2407120002). Despite repeated comments from Trump as a candidate and president calling for FCC action against companies such as CNN and MSNBC over their news content, many FCC watchers on both sides of the aisle told us they don’t expect the agency to actually act against cable networks or broadcast licenses under a second Trump administration.