The FCC will release a notice of funding opportunity “in the coming months” for organizations seeking funding through the affordable connectivity program’s outreach grant program, said Derik Goatson, Office of Native Affairs Policy legal adviser, during a Consumer Action webinar Tuesday (see 2208050023). The grant program’s review process will “prioritize applicants who target underserved low-income households and communities with low ACP enrollment rates,” Goatson said, noting “many of these communities are often tribal communities.”
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel repeatedly challenged Reno's right-of-action arguments Monday during oral argument in the city's appeal (docket 21-16560) of a lower court rejecting its franchise fee litigation against streamers Netflix and Hulu (see 2202080088). The 8th Circuit is scheduled to hear oral argument Tuesday in an appeal by Ashdown, Arkansas, regarding a similar dismissed franchise fee suit against the streaming services.
Top government speakers promised on Monday the U.S. government is moving forward on a long-awaited national spectrum strategy. But a top DOD official at NTIA’s Spectrum Policy Symposium warned federal users also have strong continuing needs, and clearing 3.1-3.45 GHz, a top candidate band for 5G, would be prohibitively expensive.
House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who schedules when legislation gets a vote in that chamber, said no one has brought up the Customs Business Fairness Act to him, and while he is aware it was part of a 2021 COVID-19 relief package, he hasn't heard anything about it lately.
Wireless provider Smith Bagley sought a three-month extension of its Lifeline waivers for Indian country, through Dec. 22. “Subscribers in the Navajo Nation continue to face unique circumstances that are a barrier to complying with the Lifeline and [affordable connectivity program] documentation rules,” Smith Bagley said in a filing posted Friday in docket 11-42: “The conditions that were present when the Commission granted the last waiver in June 2022 have not changed, as customers on Tribal lands are still suffering from the impacts of COVID-19, while contending with the lack of Internet and mail service and other challenges associated with living in remote Tribal areas.”
The Court of International Trade, in a departure from a string of past rulings, said in a Sept. 13 opinion that the Commerce Department properly used adverse facts available over China's Export Buyer's Credit Program in a countervailing duty case. Judge M. Miller Baker ruled that Commerce "reasonably explained" why it needed key information from the Chinese government, which wasn't provided, to determine whether the CVD respondents and their U.S. customers used the EBCP. Otherwise, the attempt at verification "amounted to 'looking for a needle in a haystack with the added uncertainty that Commerce might not even be able to identify the needle when it was found,'" the judge said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. believes that a way to preserve the economic benefits of chemical plants and also fight climate change is to impose a carbon border adjustment tax on certain goods.
The U.S. stance on communications with space operations planned for the moon sparked some disagreement at a World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee meeting Monday. WAC held a 90-minute virtual meeting, long by the group’s standards, as planning intensifies headed into WRC-23, slated to start at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 20, 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. believes that a way to preserve the economic benefits of chemical plants and also fight climate change is to impose a carbon border adjustment tax on certain goods.
The U.S. and its 13 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework partners closed out their first in-person ministerial meetings in Los Angeles Friday with an agreement to “seek to coordinate actions to mitigate and prevent future supply chain disruptions and secure critical sectors and key products for our manufacturers,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The 14 IPEF countries have “the collective goal of resilient supply chains that can anticipate, withstand, or rapidly recover from shocks and strengthen the competitiveness of our economies within the Indo-Pacific region,” they said in a ministerial statement. “We recognize that strengthening logistics in supply chains, including land, air, waterway, maritime, shipping and port infrastructure, can have broad-based positive effects.”