FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson’s resignation “raises significant questions about the agency’s direction and operations,” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us Wednesday.

The FirstNet Authority Board picked a new CEO to replace Ed Parkinson, who left last year, members said at the board’s quarterly meeting Wednesday (see 2205040047). FirstNet didn't identify the successor to Parkinson, who took the helm in March 2020 and had the role on an acting basis starting in 2018. The new CEO “has been identified and selected, an offer has been accepted,” said FirstNet Chairman Stephen Benjamin and the announcement will come after security and administrative clearances, he said. The quarterly meeting was streamed from Austin.

The Senate Finance Committee's chairman and ranking member said it's time to turn their attention to customs modernization, with both saying any bill will need to both enhance enforcement and make legitimate trade move faster and with more certainty.

Saudi Arabia recently announced an initiative to reduce customs clearance procedures at all sea, air and land ports to two hours, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Feb. 10. Customs clearance could have previously taken as long as 12 days, the report said, adding the country hopes to improve customs productivity and boost its competitiveness as a global logistics center. Saudi Arabia aims to reach the two-hour target by increasing cooperation with private and public “customs counterparts” and through more training for customs employees.

NARUC draft resolutions on FCC spectrum auction authority and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) got support from some industry and other groups ahead of this week’s state utilities regulators’ meeting in Washington, D.C. In an interview last week, Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Tim Schram (R) said it’s critical to use auction revenue to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, which repays federally funded carriers required to “rip and replace” equipment from Chinese vendors that may pose a security risk.

The U.S. Air Force last week said it disagreed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. determination last year not to intervene in China-based Fufeng Group's purchase of North Dakota farm land (see 2212150035). Although CFIUS concluded it didn’t have jurisdiction, the deal presented “a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area,” Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a letter to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

A bipartisan bill could add the USDA secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and block China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from investing in American agricultural companies. The bill is aimed at “preventing foreign adversaries from taking any ownership or control of the United States’ agricultural land and agricultural businesses,” lawmakers said.

The Commerce Department made multiple errors in assigning duty rates in an administrative review of the countervailing duty order on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, plaintiff intervenor JA Solar argued in its Jan. 30 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade (Risen Energy Co., et al. v. United States, CIT # 22-00231).

Unions representing workers at the FCC and other federal agencies criticized the Stopping Home Office Work's Unproductive Problems Act (HR-139) ahead of House passage of the measure, which would require the FCC and all other federal agencies to return to using the telework policies in place at the end of 2019. The measure would effectively require all federal employees who were working in the office before the COVID-19 pandemic to return to their former work locations. The House passed HR-139 221-206 amid strong Democratic opposition.