The FAA might not be a good home for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), and maybe it should move elsewhere, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Also speaking Wednesday at the FAA and Commercial Space Federation's annual commercial space conference in Washington, House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mike Haridopolos urged aggressive use of low earth orbit (LEO) broadband in BEAD, saying it would be a vastly cheaper approach.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday that he won’t seek nomination for the seat of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., if the incumbent decides not to run for reelection. Guthrie became House Commerce chairman in January. “I want this job, and I wouldn’t trade it” now for a Senate run, regardless of whether McConnell seeks another term, Guthrie said. “So 100% I’m not” running for that office.

Expect big changes to BEAD, with the Donald Trump administration and congressional Republicans rewriting the rules and putting more emphasis on efficient use of funding, tech policy experts said Tuesday at the annual State of the Net conference. Consultant Mike O'Rielly, a former FCC commissioner, said NTIA isn't likely to process any state's final proposals in the near term as it awaits where the administration and Congress take BEAD. States must be flexible and ready to pivot once that new direction becomes clear, he added.

Supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act told us they see the Senate Commerce Committee’s strong vote Wednesday to advance its revised version of the measure (S-315) as a positive early step. But they acknowledged the Capitol Hill dynamics that led congressional leaders to scuttle a December bid to pass an earlier version of the measure via a year-end package remains an obstacle. Senate Commerce advanced S-315 on a voice vote, with Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, asking the panel to record him as opposed (see 2502050052).

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, acknowledged Wednesday that newly announced NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth may draw panel Democrats’ ire during her confirmation process over potential changes from the Trump administration and Congress to the $42.5 billion NTIA-administered BEAD program. Senate Commerce advanced commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to the floor 16-12 Wednesday, as expected (see 2502040056), against near-uniform Democratic opposition aimed in part at his positions on BEAD. The panel also cleared a revised version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (S-315) and three other tech and telecom bills: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-98), Insure Cybersecurity Act (S-245) and Kids Off Social Media Act (S-278).

Senate Commerce Committee Democrats are already signaling that they're unlikely to give new NTIA administrator pick Arielle Roth a free pass through her confirmation process, particularly given their amplified doubts about how the agency-administered, $42.5 billion BEAD program will fare under Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary nominee (see 2501290047). Several Senate Commerce Democrats are likely to vote against Lutnick at a Wednesday panel meeting, but lobbyists told us he is all but certain to advance to the floor with unified GOP support.

House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pressed NPR and PBS executives Monday to testify at a March hearing on “federally funded radio and television, including its systemically biased content.” Greene’s request followed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s call last week for the Enforcement and Media bureaus to investigate PBS and NPR member stations over possible underwriting violations (see 2501300065). President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency advisory group has eyed NPR and PBS funder CPB as a potential target (see 2411220042).

Former House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said Friday that he and Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., refiled the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (Routers) Act. The measure would require the Commerce Department to “specify what transactions involving routers, modems, or devices that combine a modem and a router are prohibited” under President Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order (see 1905150066), which bars transactions involving information and communications technologies that pose an “undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of” U.S.-based communications services. The House approved the measure last year, and it was part of a package of telecom measures in a scuttled December version of the continuing resolution that extended appropriations through March 14 (see 2412170081). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and likely Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., recently filed a Senate companion version of the bill (S-244). “We are going to continue our efforts to make sure communist China cannot surveil, manipulate, and undermine the American people,” Latta said. The Routers Act “is a good step toward that worthwhile goal.”

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.

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.