Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The House Rules Committee was still considering Tuesday whether to allow floor votes on a pair of Democratic amendments to the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that would strip out its proposed clawback of $1.1 billion of CPB’s advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 (see 2506090036). Panel Republicans and Democrats sparred over CPB funding during the hearing, reflecting growing GOP interest in revoking federal support for public broadcasters over claims that their content has a predominantly pro-Democratic bias (see 2503210040). Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he's still undecided about supporting a CPB funding rollback once the upper chamber considers HR-4.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., co-chairman of the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus, is seeking to strip out a proposal to claw back CPB’s $1.1 billion in advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 from the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4). The lower chamber moves toward GOP leaders’ expected push to pass the measure this week (see 2506030065). Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday rejected a preliminary injunction request from a trio of CPB board members who are challenging Trump’s disputed April move to fire them (see 2504290067).
The California Senate voted 29-8, with three non-voting members, to approve a bill requiring the California Public Utilities Commission to "establish a mechanism to include standalone broadband internet access service as a class of lifeline service." State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D) introduced the bill, SB-716, in February. It would allow ISPs to receive lifeline subsidies if they offer at least one plan with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps for no more than $30 per month. The commission would be required to adopt rules by July 1, 2027.
The California Assembly approved a bill 52-17 on Wednesday requiring ISPs to offer an affordable broadband plan for low-income households (see 2505010040). Assemblymember Tasha Boerner (D) introduced AB-353 earlier this year. "This is not an urban versus rural issue or a Republican versus Democrat issue," she said. "I want to get something fair and reasonable that helps those who need it most."
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
Rate regulation would harm competition in the broadband marketplace and undermine efforts to close the digital divide, said ACA Connects in a new study released Thursday. The study, conducted in partnership with Cartesian, found four "cascading" effects of rate regulation: less investment, less competition, a slowdown in pricing declines and harm spillover.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said at a listening session and panel discussion hosted Wednesday by Free Press that she doesn’t expect the agency to “liberally” use a good-cause exception to notice-and-comment rules or delegated authority when it takes action on the “Delete” docket. “I am hopeful that, in fact, a lot of these rules will come up to vote,” she said at the Los Angeles event, which was part of her “First Amendment Tour” (see 2504240064).
Members of the House this week asked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to send to the Federal Register for publication rules for new multilingual templates for wireless emergency alerts (WEA), which the Public Safety Bureau released in January (see 2501080029).
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.