The wireless industry and local and state government groups filed comments last week in docket 25-276, disagreeing sharply on the FCC’s wireless infrastructure NPRM, which commissioners approved in September (see 2511250075). The agency has received hundreds of mostly short filings opposing the changes proposed in the notice (see 2512240027).
Submarine cable interests are continuing their campaign against the FCC's proposal to license owners and operators of submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE). Replies posted this week in docket 24-523 echoed similar SLTE licensing objections that had been voiced in initial comments (see 2512010043).
Privacy professionals begin the new year considering significant changes to some state privacy requirements. Lawyers suggested resolutions to review data and get an early start on risk assessments.
After filing a joint motion to strike Thai shrimp exporter Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co.’s reply brief supporting a motion for judgment (see 2512150041), the American Shrimp Processors Association and Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee, along with the U.S., each filed separately in opposition to Soc Trang’s request for leave to amend its motion (Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00030).
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led a group of 27 congressional Democrats in urging the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General on Dec. 17 to investigate whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has engaged in a conflict of interest by advocating for AI data center projects that reportedly benefit his family business, financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Exporters challenged several aspects of the Commerce Department’s investigation of ferrosilicon from Malaysia in a Dec. 17 motion for judgment (Om Materials (Sarawak) v. United States, CIT # 25-00130).
USDA is seeking public comments on ways it can improve its reporting and filing requirements under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, which it said could help the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. better screen investments in land that may pose national security risks.
The FCC has signed off on modifying the cable landing license for the Hawaiki Submarine Cable System to authorize a new branch stretching to Vava’u, Tonga, according to a notation this week in the agency's International Communications Filing System. BW Group's Hawaiki system began operation in 2018 and connects Sydney, Australia; Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand; Tafuna, American Samoa; Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii; and Pacific City, Oregon. BW said the Tonga branch is expected to be operational in the first half of 2026.
The White House's recent American space superiority executive order (see 2508140006) sets goals such as a greater launch and reentry cadence, signaling "a shift from aspirational policy to execution -- tying capital formation, operational scale, and national security together," Sheppard Mullin space lawyer Drew Svor wrote Monday on social media. While the order doesn't explicitly name the FCC, "the push to unlock investment and accelerate launch activity inevitably lands on satellite and spectrum licensing, with greater emphasis on speed, coordination, and national-security-aware authorizations," he said. It "represents an important shift in how the United States approaches space policy, investment, and security. For operators and investors, orbital security is now inseparable from licensing velocity, regulatory strategy, and U.S. competitiveness in space."
CBP should write a report on whether self-initiation of cases under the Enforce and Protect Act "would allow CBP to pursue more circumvention cases and extend existing investigations deeper into supply chains fully and whether such authority would result in greater enforcement," wrote the Senate Appropriations Committee, in its instructions to CBP as part of its DHS annual appropriations bill. It directed the agency to compile the report within 90 days of the bill's enactment.