Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced two joint resolutions of disapproval Feb. 12 that would overturn a pair of rules developed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., introduced a bill Feb. 11 that would encourage states to enact laws barring “foreign adversaries” such as China and Russia from buying farmland within their jurisdictions.

The fact that the White House reciprocal tariff memo covers far more than tariffs gives the administration a great deal of leeway to impose tariffs on even trading partners like Canada, Mexico and South Korea that have virtually no tariffs on U.S. exports.

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.

The reciprocal tariffs that the U.S. intends to levy on imports -- which could be announced as soon as April 2 -- may not be a one-for-one match of the tariff rate of another country for that product. Rather, they could take into account wage suppression, exchange rate management, "mercantilist policies," non-tariff barriers, value-added tax and extraterritorial taxes.

The FCC’s authority to regulate broadcast content is based on the scarcity of spectrum, but that authority is unconstitutional because spectrum’s scarcity doesn’t differentiate it from other resources such as land or oil, wrote Joe Kane, director-broadband and spectrum policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in an essay the Federalist Society posted Tuesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s actions (see 2502050063) to investigate broadcasters over their content “are permitted within the current state of the law” because of court rulings that broadcasters enjoy fewer First Amendment protections due to spectrum’s scarcity, Kane said. “Those cases, and therefore the FCC’s authority to regulate the content transmitted over radio waves, are based on fundamental fallacies,” he wrote. “Land is scarce, but the fact that the government has granted or auctioned deeds doesn’t permit it to regulate the content of what landowners say.” The law also doesn’t apply the rationale of spectrum scarcity evenly, Kane pointed out. Wi-Fi signals are just as susceptible to interference as broadcast radio signals, he said. “Yet no one would countenance content-based control of all wireless internet traffic, even though the scarcity rationale would apply identically to those types of transmissions.” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the validity of the spectrum scarcity rationale in his concurrence in FCC v. Fox, Kane said. “Do his colleagues agree?” he asked. “Spectrum is not so special a medium that it should be carved out of the First Amendment,” he wrote. “To the extent that any FCC action or any part of the Communications Act relies on the inverse assumption, it is unconstitutional.”

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

The State Department approved a possible $1 billion military sale to Kuwait, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. The sale includes various design and construction services for military bases, including the Mohammed Al Ahmed Naval Base, which the Kuwait government has requested to buy services to support the procurement of maritime and land facilities for. The principal contractors haven't yet been determined.

SpaceX's temporary loss of a $100 million contract with Ontario over a U.S./Canada tariff fight could be a harbinger of satellite communications services increasingly enmeshed in U.S. trade disputes. Some see non-U.S. satellite operators potentially benefiting from the Starlink contract episode.

The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: