Congress is more than happy to let the FCC sort out the USF mess on its own, a House Communications Subcommittee Republican aide said Wednesday. “There is no motivation currently on the Hill to delve into these issues,” said Ray Baum, aide to Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. Even if there were motivation, “there is really no consensus,” he said, pointing to a schism between free-market proponents who'd like to see the fund disappear, and some who want it to grow. To Baum, Congress’s role at the moment is to seek input from interested parties and pass it on to the FCC to come up with a workable solution. “If this issue doesn’t lend itself to agency expertise, there isn’t one that does,” he told a Catholic University conference. “We're really wishing them the best."

The apps economy has created nearly 500,000 jobs just since the introduction of the iPhone, Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute, said Wednesday, at an event sponsored by the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. Sen. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D.-N.J., and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also spoke at the event, which focused more narrowly as well on jump starting the state’s economy.

Business and labor groups joined Obama administration officials in stressing the need for enforcing intellectual property rights as a Department of Commerce report showed that IP-intensive industries supported at least 40 million jobs and contributed more than $5 trillion to the economy in 2010, accounting for 34.8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. “When Americans know that their ideas will be protected, they have greater incentive to pursue advances and technologies that help keep us competitive, and our businesses have the confidence they need to hire more workers,” said Commerce Secretary John Bryson.

That the FCC has made such incremental changes to media ownership rules since 1996 was a surprise to Harold Furchtgott-Roth, who became a Republican commissioner the next year. Just-departed Democratic member Michael Copps worries more mergers and acquisitions will continue.

The FCC should carefully consider broadcaster concerns as the commission moves forward with an order requiring public political files to be posted online, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday. Speaking at a Catholic University conference, Clyburn outlined an agenda for the rest of the year including work on spectrum, USF reform and accessibility. Clyburn and a later wireless industry panel urged rules to spur competition in the mobile market.

The FCC and major wireless carriers unveiled an agreement Tuesday aimed at curbing the number of smartphones stolen each day in the U.S. Carriers agreed to launch a database within six months allowing the quick blocking of stolen cellphones, keeping them from being used again. Just last year, the FCC took on wireless “bill shock” by pushing through a similar voluntary agreement from the carriers.

As the government deals with the global challenge of cyber security, it’s important to focus on the little things, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told computer security professionals Tuesday at a cybersecurity conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council. The FCC’s small business initiatives have included releasing a tip sheet with advice about password-protecting their wireless networks, and a “small biz cyber planner” to help businesses develop a cyber security plan. “Yes, this is low-hanging fruit,” Genachowski said. “There is a lot of low-hanging fruit to tackle in addressing cyberthreats. And we can’t let the larger and more complex challenges keep us from making practical progress on low-hanging fruit."

Critics of the Comcast-NBCUniversal transaction said the FCC’s delay in enforcing some of the conditions on that deal suggest it should no longer approve transactions where serious conditions need to be applied to protect the public interest. Pointing to Bloomberg LP’s long-running channel placement complaint as Exhibit A, Public Knowledge, Free Press and Consumers Union officials said the agency should deny more deals. “Behavioral conditions just do not work in a market that is as consolidated as the market for telecommunications services,” said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Free Press. “It’s a lot easier and cleaner and a better outcome for consumers [for the FCC] to live up to its mandate and start denying transactions that are going to lead to a whole lot of regulation” through conditions, he said.

Papers that TV stations must electronically give the FCC will go in the cloud. The public-inspection files all TV broadcasters must under a draft order soon start giving the commission, so they can be found on fcc.gov and not just in stations’ main studios, will be uploaded to a cloud system, agency and industry officials said. They said the draft Media Bureau order tentatively set for a vote at April 27’s commissioner meeting (CD April 9 p5) says such a cloud mechanism is meant to allow speedy uploading of documents during peak times, such as shortly before elections when campaign ads often sell for the lowest unit charge and must be recorded in broadcasters’ political files.

While LightSquared’s investor considers a bankruptcy filing and awaits a ruling on the FCC’s proposal to revoke its ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) authority, the company’s control of its spectrum license is expected to remain intact, some satellite executives and analysts said. Phil Falcone, Harbinger Capital Partners CEO, said last week that he’s considering bankruptcy as an option for the company that is attempting to integrate a ground-based wireless network with satellite coverage (CD April 6 p14).