Commissioner Geoffrey Starks will hold an off-the-record panel of Black former FCC chairs Feb. 10, in honor of Black History Month, said a public notice Wednesday. Former Chairmen William Kennard and Michael Powell and former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who served as acting chairwoman in 2013, will participate. The event is in-person only.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents FCC and FTC employees, is challenging the White House's Schedule F executive order aimed at reducing federal worker protections against firing. The EO -- one of a slew the new Trump administration issued Monday (see 2501210070) -- expressly applies to career employees, who typically remain in their jobs after a presidential transition, NTEU said in a complaint filed this week with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 1:25-cv-00170). NTEU said the EO runs contrary to Office of Personnel Management rules that limit transferring positions into new categories. The EO "will radically reshape the civil service by drastically increasing the number and type of employees who are in a new category of excepted service and be at risk of dismissal without adverse action rights," the union said. It asked the court to enjoin President Donald Trump from instituting or enforcing the EO.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is leaving a number of key officials in place, at least for now, while changing others as he takes over the agency. He unveiled selections for leaders of bureaus and offices in a Wednesday release. For example, Carr named FCC veteran Jacob Lewis as acting general counsel, replacing Michelle Ellison. Carr was general counsel before being confirmed as a member of the FCC. Erin Boone, just tapped as a Carr aide (see 2501210022), will also serve as acting chief of the Media Bureau, replacing Holly Saurer, who recently left the post (see 2501130071). Patrick Webre, a deputy chief of the Enforcement Bureau, is now acting chief, replacing Peter Hyun, who had also been serving in an acting capacity. Carr named Eduard Bartholme acting chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, replacing Alejandro Roark. Joel Taubenblatt will continue leading the Wireless Bureau, Trent Harkrader the Wireline Bureau and Debra Jordan the Public Safety Bureau, though all three are currently in an acting capacity. Mark Stephens remains in place as managing director. Carr plans a second release on appointments, the notice said.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases are marked with an * .
House Commerce Committee leaders are cautioning that the Communications Subcommittee’s planned Thursday spectrum policy hearing isn’t necessarily an indication that the panel will seek early action on an airwaves legislative package. Some lawmakers and lobbyists instead said the hearing is aimed at educating the subpanel’s crop of new members on the complicated dynamics at play in the spectrum legislative debate. New House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and other Republicans are eyeing using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation (see 2501070069).
The FCC Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau have set aside decisions made last week under the previous FCC chair to dismiss complaints against stations owned by ABC, CBS and NBC, according to orders filed in docket 25-11 Wednesday.
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to keep Greg Watson as his chief of staff; he names Scott Delacourt, ex-Wiley, chief of staff of the commission; Adam Chan, ex-Boyden Gray, national security senior counsel; Anthony Patrone, ex-NTIA, legal adviser; Matt Mittelstaedt, ex-office of then-Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, director-office of legislative affairs; Arpan Sura, former senior counsel-Wireless Bureau, senior counsel-spectrum and technology; Danielle Thumann, Carr's legal adviser, becomes senior counsel-wireline, public safety and consumer protection; Erin Boone, former chief of staff and wireless adviser to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, becomes Carr's senior counsel-media and enforcement; Wireline Bureau's Callie Coker, moves to legal adviser-chairman's office; Drema Johnson continues as Carr's confidential assistant; Stephanie Chambless, ex-House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, named special counsel-Office of the General Counsel ... GeoLinks names David Gray, ex-Splice, channel sales leader … Broadband telecommunications services company Boston Omaha adds David Graff, ex-Hudl, to board.
Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) filed an emergency petition at the FCC Monday asking the agency to stay implementation of its one-to-one robotext consent rules, which commissioners approved in December 2023 (see 2312130019). The petition cites President Donald Trump's order on Monday (see 2501210070) requiring that agencies review all orders issued under the Biden administration. “The FCC’s one-to-one consent ruling was published in the Federal Registrar with an effective date of January 27 … but has not yet taken effect,” the petition said. Consistent with the regulatory freeze, REACH asked the commission to “immediately stay the effective date of the one-to-one rule until March 18, 2025, and re-open a comment period to consider issues of fact, law, and policy raised by the rule.” While the group “generally supports the one-to-one rule it has filed comments suggesting important modifications to help small businesses better comply with the rule,” said attorney Eric Troutman of Troutman Amin.
Public interest groups filed in support of the FCC’s 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining T-Mobile $80 million for allegedly failing to safeguard data related to customers' real-time locations. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. In the Telecom Act, “Congress entrusted [the FCC] with the responsibility of holding the nation’s largest telecommunications providers accountable when those carriers violate the privacy of their subscribers,” the groups said in an amicus brief. Congress intended that Section 222 "ensure that telecommunications providers would protect personal data collected from their customers, and intentionally included broad definitions and gave the Commission clear authority to interpret them as technologies evolved,” they added: “Decades later, it has become clear that one of the most sensitive categories of data that telecommunications providers collect about their customers is mobile location data.” The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Public Knowledge filed the brief. They urged the D.C. Circuit to "reject T-Mobile’s arguments and hold that the text and purpose of Section 222 clearly authorize the FCC orders under review.” If carriers prevail, “they will have successfully evaded virtually all means of legal accountability for violating their customers’ privacy, including data sold to bounty hunters.” Letting carriers avoid FCC authority “will mean that there is essentially no backstop to enforcing the privacy rights Congress guaranteed consumers under the Communications Act.”
As it begins moving customers off legacy networks to next-generation technology, AT&T filed at the FCC last week a test plan for its new AT&T Phone for Business -- Advanced (APB-A) technology, “an IP-based voice product that provides substantially similar performance” to the legacy service. The new technology is based on the company's AT&T Phone -- Advanced (AP-A) technology, said an undocketed filing by AT&T. It noted that AT&T's proposal to initially stop new sales and then discontinue residential local service in nine Oklahoma wire centers was based on the AP-A test plan. The FCC approved that move in December (see 2412230066). “The methodology set forth in this APB-A test plan is substantively identical to the methodology set forth in the AP-A test plan that AT&T employed in that successful discontinuance application,” the filing said.