House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).
While digital skills are key to people's ability to compete in the current economy, a recent New America survey found that answers vary widely on how many Americans actually have such skills, said Jessica Dine, policy analyst at New America’s Open Technology Institute, during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Part of the problem is that, at least in the U.S., the term “digital skills” is poorly defined, she said.
The House Commerce Committee advanced the American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) Wednesday by a closer-than-expected 26-24 party-line vote, with unified Democratic opposition and a smattering of Republican absences at that point in the markup session. The panel also unanimously advanced the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046) and five other bipartisan connectivity bills, as expected (see 2512020063).
The FCC will be expanding its rule deletion efforts in 2026, tackling more items at open meetings and focusing on churning out orders stemming from the many NPRMs it issued in 2025, said Chairman Brendan Carr and bureau and 10th-floor staff at a Practising Law Institute event Wednesday. “I think you’re going to see even more results in getting to orders here in the second year” of his chairmanship, Carr said during a Q&A.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).
NTIA is going to look into excessive screen use in schools by youths, with an eye toward what federal policies and incentives might be contributing to the problem, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday at a Free State Foundation event. NTIA will also look at what market dynamics and marketing efforts are driving excessive screen use, she said.
New Era Broadband, a wireless ISP in Ohio, opposed any move to relocate the citizens broadband radio service band or raise power levels (see 2511260031). Moving the band would “basically put us out of business,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-258. “Drastically changing the CBRS rules could cost our business, which would directly impact 7 jobs, nearly 800 internet users, multiple first responders, firehouses, township operations.”
Appalachian Power Co. is denying Comcast access to its poles that have preexisting safety violations unless Comcast pays for replacing the pole, Comcast told the FCC in a pole attachment complaint posted Wednesday. Comcast said it needs access to thousands of Appalachian power poles for its network expansion work in Virginia, including bringing connectivity to 13,000 BEAD-funded locations in the state. It said Appalachian has adopted a policy where Comcast must pay the total cost of replacing the preexisting violation pole, "with, at best, the potential for a 50% reimbursement at the whim of the preexisting violator." That's despite FCC rules saying pole owners can't charge new attachers the cost of addressing preexisting violations of safety or construction standards or delay new attachers while the pole owner tries to fix the preexisting violation or seek reimbursement from the preexisting violator. Appalachian didn't comment.
NTIA conditioning any state receiving BEAD funds on not imposing rate regulation or net neutrality-like rules on a BEAD subgrantee or on not regulating AI is of "dubious legality," New Street Research's Blair Levin said Wednesday. He told us much the same earlier this week (see 2511250076). Levin said there have been numerous cases where courts have held that the president can't condition the grant of funds appropriated by Congress in ways that coerce the states. The major questions doctrine and its limit on executive power also could be a route to challenging the conditions, he said. States "would have a material chance of overturning" those executive actions. NTIA head Arielle Roth said last month that the agency was telling states they can't put rate regulation and state-level net neutrality rules on BEAD-funded projects (see 2510280051).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: