Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday night that President Donald Trump is nominating panel Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth as NTIA's leader, as expected. Lobbyists had previously also tipped Roth as a top contender for former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat but Trump nominated Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty for that role instead. Roth was previously a legislative aide to former Senate Commerce member Roy Blunt, R-Mo., O’Rielly’s wireline adviser and a Wireline Bureau legal adviser. She also had stints at the Hudson Institute and Federalist Society.
The Senate Commerce Committee said Wednesday night it plans to vote Feb. 5 on commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (S-315) and three other tech and telecom bills. Lutnick drew criticism from several Senate Commerce Democrats during his Wednesday confirmation hearing after he wouldn’t commit to maintaining NTIA’s approval of some states’ BEAD plans or defy orders by President Donald Trump to withhold program funding (see 2501290047). Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., also criticized Lutnick in a Wednesday night statement, though for unrelated reasons. Senate Commerce’s planned vote on S-315 would come a week after Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., refiled it. The bill, which the House Commerce Committee advanced last year, would require the Department of Transportation to mandate AM radio's inclusion in future automobiles (see 2409180047), mostly affecting electric vehicles. Also on Senate Commerce’s agenda: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-98), Insure Cybersecurity Act (S-245) and Kids Off Social Media Act (S-278). The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
The loss of funding under the Chips and Science Act of 2022 could mean companies will retreat from investments they’re making in the U.S., experts said Thursday during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar. Advanced chips are critical to smartphones and many other devices made and sold in the U.S., they noted. Few smartphones are made in the U.S., but chips are integral to other wireless gear manufactured here. Experts also said investment in chip research helps drive innovation in the communications sector.
In one of the first big antitrust decisions in the second Donald Trump administration, the DOJ sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s proposed $14 billion buy of Juniper Networks. The department said its decision, announced Thursday, was based on the proposed deal's competitive effects on the wireless local area network market. Both companies said they will contest the decision, which they called “substantially disconnected from market realities.” The acquisition was pending for more than a year.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has asked the Enforcement and Media bureaus to investigate PBS and NPR member stations over possible underwriting violations, and he doesn’t think they should receive taxpayer funds, according to identical letters sent to the CEOs of those stations Wednesday. Attorneys told us the FCC hasn’t historically been very active in policing underwriting, and the agency’s Democrats said that the letters appeared to be an attempt to intimidate public broadcasters.
CTA CEO Gary Shapiro warned Wednesday of a potential “brain drain” in the federal government should the Donald Trump administration continue its assault on the bureaucracy. The Joe Biden administration lacked enough officials who understood how business works, and Trump's don’t understand government, Shapiro said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Unions that represent federal employees, including at the FCC, slammed the latest Trump actions.
The White House OMB rescinded its stayed memo that called for a freeze on most federal grants and loans, bowing to mounting criticism of the plan’s breadth even after it partially walked it back Tuesday (see 2501280051). The now-rescinded freeze would have paused NTIA’s disbursal of $42.5 billion from the BEAD program and other Commerce Department initiatives, commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick acknowledged during his Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing Wednesday.
A White House executive order on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs could lead to telecom companies abandoning such efforts, causing a rollback of progress on diversity, said industry executives and public interest attorneys during a FCBA panel discussion Tuesday. There is “fear and chaos” in “lots of corridors and hallways of corporate America” over the DEI executive order and anticipation of future White House action in that vein, said Clint Odom, T-Mobile vice president-strategic alliances and external affairs and a former FCC aide. “The world seems to be lining up between the companies that are doing DEI and the companies that are retreating from it.”
With President Donald Trump yet to lay out with any detail what course he will chart on spectrum, experts warned Tuesday that the current administration faces the same issues as the last (see 2411140042). With various band studies underway, launched under Joe Biden, there are no obvious bands left to reallocate for exclusive licensed use, experts said at the RCR Wireless Wi-Fi Forum.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted an administrative stay late Tuesday afternoon that temporarily blocked a White House OMB memo, which called for a freeze on most federal grants and loans, from going into effect. The Trump administration memo already faced an array of legal challenges, including a planned lawsuit from a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Broadband officials and industry advocates raised questions about the memo's constitutionality and the future of certain FCC programs, such as Lifeline. Others warned the freeze could have serious implications for NTIA's BEAD program.