With hurricane season underway, AT&T said Thursday it added a 45-foot custom-built landing craft to its maritime fleet that can carry equipment to a coastal area after disaster strikes. The landing craft “is part of the more than 750 pieces of specialized response equipment that traverse land, sea and air and can quickly deploy before, during and after any storm,” the carrier said. AT&T is also adding enhanced features to FirstNet push-to-talk and messaging, “introducing new features such as discreet listening and enhanced group and interagency coordination.”

The Court of International Trade on May 31 said that a duty drawback claim becomes deemed liquidated after one year if the underlying import entries are also liquidated and final, with finality defined as the end of the 180-day window in which to file a protest with CBP.

The Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) disregarded its own ReConnect program regulations when it awarded nearly $70 million in federal grants in the fourth round of funding last year to two phone companies, Interior and Mukluk, to deploy broadband services for individuals and businesses in Alaska’s Nome census area, alleged two native villages in a preliminary injunction motion Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00100) in U.S. District Court for Alaska. Unalakleet and Elim are federally recognized tribes that contend that Interior and Mukluk didn’t obtain resolutions of tribal consent from them or any other tribes within the Nome census area, as RUS’ “clear and unambiguous” ReConnect program regulations require, said their complaint. ReConnect furnishes loans and grants to cover the costs of construction, improvement or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. In disregarding its own regulations, RUS “acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” alleged the complaint. As a direct result of RUS’ violation of the APA, tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim have been irreparably harmed, it said. The issuance of awards in “contravention” of RUS regulations mandating tribal consent itself irreparably harms tribal “sovereignty,” because the right to approve or reject proposals over tribal lands can’t be restored by the payment of money, it said. Despite obtaining nearly $70 million in ReConnect funding, Interior and Mukluk haven’t begun construction and aren’t serving the Nome census area, it said. Because ReConnect regulations say that RUS won’t fund more than one project that serves any one given geographic area, the issuance of any award, even improper, has the effect of precluding tribal lands “from obtaining the benefit of any future awards from RUS,” it said. Tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim “have been forced to accept non-existent services from providers to which they did not consent and have been prevented from receiving services from providers to which they do consent,” said the complaint. RUS’ improper funding awards also compromise the rights of tribes “to benefit from alternative federal funding administered by agencies other than USDA,” such as NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment program, “causing additional irreparable harm,” it said. Unalakleet and Elim “have established that a preliminary injunction should issue,” it said They seek an order compelling RUS to “deobligate” Interior and Mukluk’s ReConnect program awards “until such time as they can be declared void and unenforceable through this action,” it said. They separately seek an order compelling RUS to designate the plaintiffs as unserved, “thus removing the cloud on eligibility for concurrent and future federal funding during the pendency of this action,” it said.

The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals granted AT&T’s unopposed May 21 motion to stay the current briefing schedule in its appeal against Lane County, Oregon, to enable the parties to engage in further settlement talks (see 2405220001), said a clerk’s order Tuesday (docket 24-855). The previously established briefing schedule is vacated, and the appellate proceedings are stayed until Aug. 26, or until further order of the court, said the order. If no motion for further relief is filed before Aug. 26, the briefing schedule will be reset in a future order, it said. AT&T’s appeal contends that a U.S. magistrate judge, in granting summary judgment for Lane County, wrongly found that AT&T was obligated to appeal the county’s denial of its cell tower application to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeal (see 2402220046).

The Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) disregarded its own ReConnect program regulations when it awarded nearly $70 million in federal grants in the fourth round of funding last year to two phone companies, Interior and Mukluk, to deploy broadband services for individuals and businesses in Alaska’s Nome census area, alleged two native villages in a preliminary injunction motion Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00100) in U.S. District Court for Alaska. Unalakleet and Elim are federally recognized tribes that contend that Interior and Mukluk didn’t obtain resolutions of tribal consent from them or any other tribes within the Nome census area, as RUS’ “clear and unambiguous” ReConnect program regulations require, said their complaint. ReConnect furnishes loans and grants to cover the costs of construction, improvement or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. In disregarding its own regulations, RUS “acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” alleged the complaint. As a direct result of RUS’ violation of the APA, tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim have been irreparably harmed, it said. The issuance of awards in “contravention” of RUS regulations mandating tribal consent itself irreparably harms tribal “sovereignty,” because the right to approve or reject proposals over tribal lands can’t be restored by the payment of money, it said. Despite obtaining nearly $70 million in ReConnect funding, Interior and Mukluk haven’t begun construction and aren’t serving the Nome census area, it said. Because ReConnect regulations say that RUS won’t fund more than one project that serves any one given geographic area, the issuance of any award, even improper, has the effect of precluding tribal lands “from obtaining the benefit of any future awards from RUS,” it said. Tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim “have been forced to accept non-existent services from providers to which they did not consent and have been prevented from receiving services from providers to which they do consent,” said the complaint. RUS’ improper funding awards also compromise the rights of tribes “to benefit from alternative federal funding administered by agencies other than USDA,” such as NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment program, “causing additional irreparable harm,” it said. Unalakleet and Elim “have established that a preliminary injunction should issue,” it said They seek an order compelling RUS to “deobligate” Interior and Mukluk’s ReConnect program awards “until such time as they can be declared void and unenforceable through this action,” it said. They separately seek an order compelling RUS to designate the plaintiffs as unserved, “thus removing the cloud on eligibility for concurrent and future federal funding during the pendency of this action,” it said.

Intuitive Machines hopes it can send its second lunar lander to the moon's surface sometime in Q4. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, it sought approval for that NOVA-C Lunar Lander mission. It would land at the moon's South Pole and carry out a variety of missions, including testing an LTE communications system on the moon. The company's first lunar lander mission, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, was carried out in February.

The Court of International Trade was wrong to rule that imported calendar planners should be classified by CBP as diaries instead of calendars, the importer said in its opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 24 (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1710).

If the settlement process that AT&T and Lane County, Oregon, agreed to results in a “certain outcome,” AT&T would voluntarily dismiss its appeal, said in-house AT&T attorney Raymond Bolanos in a declaration Thursday (docket 24-855) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court. His declaration was in support of AT&T’s unopposed motion to stay the current briefing schedule in its appeal against Lane County “to allow for the parties to engage in further settlement efforts” (see 2405220001). Under the parties’ agreed-upon procedure "for potentially resolving the appeal and avoiding the drafting and filing of appellate briefs," if the settlement process doesn’t result in a resolution of the case, the parties “would move to resume the appellate briefing schedule,” said Bolanos’ declaration. AT&T’s appeal contends that a U.S. magistrate judge, in granting summary judgment for Lane County, wrongly found that AT&T was obligated to appeal the county’s denial of its cell tower application to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeal (see 2402220046).

The House Agriculture Committee-passed farm bill includes a “critical” provision that would help streamline regulations slowing rural connectivity, USTelecom said Friday. The committee voted 33-21 Friday to approve the farm bill with four Democrats in support. The bill includes language from the Facilitating Optimal and Rapid Expansion and Siting of Telecommunications (Forest) Act. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., who introduced the legislation, successfully attached it as an amendment to the farm bill. The amendment would require that the U.S. Forest Service recognize previously approved permits with prior environmental and historical preservation approvals. “At a time when rural connectivity is more critical than ever, the Forest amendment in the Farm Bill trims back the regulatory underbrush that has been slowing it down,” said Brandon Heiner, USTelecom senior vice president-government affairs. “Speeding up the broadband permitting process on federal Forest Service lands is not only necessary, but long overdue.” If the House passes it, the farm bill would need to be reconciled with language from the Democratic-led Senate. Congress did not approve a farm bill in 2023.

A Kelley Drye attorney, who used to be part of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force due to his role at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office of Labor Affairs, said the recent 26 additions to the FLETF's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list are significant because they are not companies directly employing Uyghurs harvesting cotton or in fabric mills or cut and sew operations.