The FCC circulated Wednesday night a draft program comment it plans to submit to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) that seeks to streamline the FCC’s review process for wayside poles that railroads are building for the positive train control (PTC) safety system. The draft would also exempt some PTC infrastructure from review (http://bit.ly/1ffJpho). The FCC began developing the program comment last year amid railroads’ concerns they wouldn’t be able to meet Congress’s mandate to complete work on PTC infrastructure by Dec. 31, 2015. The railroads were concerned the existing preview process under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act would not be able to expeditiously clear each of the more than 20,000 poles in time to meet the deadline (CD Dec 19 p2). An FCC official told us the railroads have “essentially agreed” that the rules in the program comment would create a timeline that “works for them to get everything into our system, reviewed by the tribes and the states and still allow them to get everything constructed by the statutory deadline."
One of Capitol Hill’s fiercest defenders of net neutrality principles, competition and consumer protection announced Thursday that he would be stepping down at the end of his term. House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will not seek reelection after 40 years in office, he said in a press release (http://1.usa.gov/LsWQSA). Waxman will depart as the committee undertakes an overhaul of the Communications Act, leaving some uncertainty among lobbyists and observers about who will take over for Democrats.
One of Capitol Hill’s fiercest defenders of net neutrality principles, competition and consumer protection announced Thursday that he would be stepping down at the end of his term. House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will not seek reelection after 40 years in office, he said in a press release (http://1.usa.gov/LsWQSA). Waxman will depart as the committee undertakes an overhaul of the Communications Act, leaving some uncertainty among lobbyists and observers about who will take over for Democrats.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Jan. 29 said it is once again amending entry requirements for fresh blueberries from Chile to allow methyl bromide fumigation at the Pharr, Texas land port of entry. Fumigation with methyl bromide is already allowed at the maritime Ports of New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Miami, Wilmington and Philadelphia (see 14012101). For shipments from Chilean regions other than VI, VIII, or VIII (O’Higgins, Maule, and Bio Bio), APHIS will continue to require increased preclearance inspection at the port of export in lieu of fumigation.
FirstNet is making real progress after getting off to a bumpy start, FirstNet board member Kevin McGinnis told a meeting of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Wednesday. McGinnis, CEO of North East Mobile Health Services and a member of NPSTC, said “things are a lot further along than they were."
On Jan. 28 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
The U.S. and the 11 other Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations will likely convene a TPP ministerial summit in February, said Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Wendy Cutler at a Center for Strategic and International Studies Jan. 22 event on the U.S.-Australian alliance. Logistical and scheduling issues prevent a summit prior to that date, said Cutler.
Arguments that broadcasters received their spectrum for free from the government aren’t true, according to a recent Navigant study (http://bit.ly/1aoieDY), NAB said in a press release Tuesday. “Nearly all TV station owners paid market value for their spectrum licenses through private transactions,” the release said. The spectrum auction won’t be a “windfall” for broadcasters “just because the checks they wrote to pay for those licenses were made out to private companies, rather than to ‘Uncle Sam,'” the study said. It found 92 percent of all full-power television stations have been bought and sold since receiving their initial licenses. Transactions involving those stations have a cumulative value of more than “$50 billion, which includes the market value paid for the stations’ spectrum licenses,” said the release. The fact that the broadcast licenses originally given out free by the government can be transferred to a new holder is “irrelevant,” said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood in an email. “Say the government gives you land to use for free, and also gives you the possibility to sell that right to someone else. Does exercising that ability to transfer the license mean it wasn’t free in the first place?” Wood asked. The Navigant study also “refuted” the idea that broadcasters are unique in having been granted government spectrum, by pointing to cellular and satellite licenses, NAB said. Recognizing that broadcasters have “property rights” over their spectrum “will promote efficient spectrum usage, a robust private market-based system to reallocate spectrum, and technological innovation,” the study said.
Arguments that broadcasters got their spectrum for free from the government aren’t true, according to a recent Navigant study (http://bit.ly/1aoieDY), NAB said in a news release Tuesday. “Nearly all TV station owners paid market value for their spectrum licenses through private transactions,” the release said. The spectrum auction won’t be a “windfall” for broadcasters “just because the checks they wrote to pay for those licenses were made out to private companies, rather than to ‘Uncle Sam,'” the study said. It found 92 percent of all full-power television stations have been bought and sold since receiving their initial licenses. Transactions involving those stations have a cumulative value of more than “$50 billion, which includes the market value paid for the stations’ spectrum licenses,” said the release. It’s “irrelevant” the broadcast licenses originally given out free by the government can be transferred to a new holder, said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood in an email. “Say the government gives you land to use for free, and also gives you the possibility to sell that right to someone else. Does exercising that ability to transfer the license mean it wasn’t free in the first place?” he asked. The Navigant study also “refuted” the idea that broadcasters are unique in having been granted government spectrum, by pointing to cellular and satellite licenses, NAB said. Recognizing that broadcasters have “property rights” over their spectrum “will promote efficient spectrum usage, a robust private market-based system to reallocate spectrum, and technological innovation,” the study said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has a big decision ahead in coming months -- whether to seek en banc and, ultimately, Supreme Court review of Tuesday’s decision rejecting the agency’s 2010 net neutrality rules. Longtime FCC watchers disagree on the likelihood of an appeal. Some say an appeal carries a risk since the panel’s majority offered an expansive reading of FCC authority under Section 706 of the Communications Act. The decision is not the FCC’s alone to make because the solicitor general, not the commission, would have to file the appeal before the high court.