Senate leaders may still try to hold votes on Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty and NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth in late June, shortly before the upper chamber breaks for the week leading up to the July Fourth holiday, but lobbyists now believe both confirmations are more likely to happen in the lead-up to the August recess. Lobbyists told us that Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’ pledge last week to resign before the agency's June 26 meeting (see 2505220043) is easing Republicans’ pressure to expedite Trusty’s confirmation because the GOP will gain a majority even without her taking office.

The House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee scheduled a hearing June 4 to examine the next steps to combat illegal robocalls and robotexts, the Commerce Committee said Wednesday. “Illegal, predatory robocalls and robotexts have defrauded Americans of billions of dollars and undermined the public’s faith in the communications they receive,” said House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Oversight Chairman Gary Palmer, R-Ala. “Despite congressional and agency enforcement actions, rapid technological development has made it increasingly difficult to stop this scourge.” The hearing will eye “ongoing efforts to target these fraudsters and ways to protect Americans from illegal robocalls and robotexts that are meant to harass and deceive,” the lawmakers said. It will begin at 10:15 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

A White House OMB spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that President Donald Trump will send Congress a promised $9.4 billion rescissions package next week, seeking to claw back about $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding (see 2504150052). Since January, congressional Republicans have shown growing interest in ending federal funding for public broadcasters amid rancor over what they say is pro-Democratic bias in news coverage (see 2502030064). NPR sued the Trump administration Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block a White House executive order cutting funding for NPR and PBS (see 2505270047).

Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is threatening to block Senate passage of its budget reconciliation package if Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others include spectrum legislative language that doesn’t exempt the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7 GHz bands from potential reallocation for commercial use. Rounds’ declaration Wednesday night created another potential roadblock for spectrum legislation to make it into a negotiated reconciliation deal, even as House GOP leaders celebrated the lower chamber's narrow passage Thursday morning of their One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1). That measure's spectrum title would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034, and exempts the lower 3 GHz and 5.9-7.1 (6) GHz bands from reallocation.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered positive but different interpretations of President Donald Trump’s apparent endorsement Tuesday (see 2505200058) of the spectrum language cleared in the lower chamber's One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package (HR-1). The two leaders were vague about whether Trump’s statement makes it more difficult for Cruz and other senators to press for potential changes to the spectrum proposal (see 2505130059). Meanwhile, the House Rules Committee was still debating Wednesday afternoon plans for bringing HR-1 to the floor.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is defending cuts to the agency’s workforce and other actions in written testimony ahead of the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s planned Wednesday hearing on commission oversight. Carr also urges Congress again to restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority, as House GOP leaders aimed to pass, as soon as Wednesday night, their One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package with spectrum language included. The House Appropriations Financial Services hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2358-A Rayburn.

CTIA urged the House on Sunday to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package as chamber leaders geared up to advance the measure, despite continued doubts that it has enough support within the razor-thin Republican majority to pass as currently written. The House Budget Committee voted 17-16 Sunday night to advance the combined reconciliation measure, which includes Commerce Committee-cleared spectrum language (see 2505140062). House Budget voted down the package Friday, throwing into doubt Republican leaders’ goal of passing it on the floor before the lower chamber is scheduled to begin its Memorial Day recess later this week (see 2505160062). “The wireless industry urges swift passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” said CTIA CEO Ajit Pai. “The critical spectrum and tax provisions in this legislation will allow the wireless industry to invest, create jobs, propel economic growth, and secure America’s edge in innovation.” The White House highlighted Pai’s statement in a Monday news release about private sector support for the reconciliation measure.

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania -- FCC officials speaking Saturday at the FCBA's annual seminar expressed confidence that the agency will regain spectrum auction authority. Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said the commission expects at least one auction, AWS-3, within the next year and is taking steps to ensure it can support that auction, such as preparing necessary IT, he said. Commissioner Nathan Simington said Congress sees midband spectrum as a priority, so a significant auction should be teed up by year-end.

The House Budget Committee voted 21-16 Friday against advancing Republicans’ combined “One Big, Beautiful Bill” budget reconciliation measure, which includes Commerce Committee-cleared spectrum language (see 2505140062). House Commerce's measure would restore the FCC's lapsed auction authority through the end of FY 2034 and requires the commission to sell at least 600 MHz of reallocated airwaves within six years (see 2505120058). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas and some other Republicans are eyeing alternative spectrum language (see 2505130059).

The White House’s pattern of removing dissenting officials from independent agencies is “vividly illustrative” of the administration’s fear and weakness, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in a speech for The Media Institute Thursday. “Even when this administration holds so much power, it cannot tolerate disagreement or dissent,” Gomez said. “And if I’m removed from my seat on the commission, let it be said plainly: It wasn’t because I failed to do my job. It’s because I insisted on doing it." Congress has always intended for the FCC to be independent, she noted. During the creation of the FCC's predecessor Federal Radio Commission, Congress considered giving power over the airwaves to the commerce secretary, she said. That idea was struck down “specifically because Congress feared that a single individual, subject to political will, would possess too much control” over radio.