Two top House Commerce Committee members filed a pair of bills Monday aimed at increasing the reliability of U.S. emergency communications networks. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., refiled the Emergency Reporting Act and introduced the Kari’s Law Reporting Act. The Emergency Reporting Act would direct the FCC to issue reports and do field hearings after activating the disaster information reporting system. The Kari’s Law Reporting Act would mandate that the FCC report on the extent to which multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors are complying with the 2018 Kari’s Law requirement that such systems give direct access to 911 without the need to dial a prefix.
Some top lawmakers indicated in recent interviews that they lack a clear plan to fund next-generation 911 tech upgrades, months after Congress decided against allocating future spectrum auction revenue for them in the budget reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (see 2507080065). NG911 advocates said they expect that the lack of an alternative will come up during Tuesday's House Communications Subcommittee hearing on public safety communications issues. The hearing is also likely to address a looming legislative renewal of FirstNet that must happen before the existing mandate expires in February 2027 (see 2509030058).
The House Appropriations Committee said Friday it plans to vote this week on FY 2026 funding bills covering NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies and omit further allocations for CPB. The panel will vote Tuesday on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s funding bill, which lacks language to restore any of the $1.1 billion in federal money for CPB that Congress clawed back in July via the 2025 Rescissions Act (see 2509030065). The meeting will begin at 11 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn.
The House Communications Subcommittee has rescheduled a hearing on public safety communications issues for 10:15 a.m. Sept. 9 in 2123 Rayburn, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The subpanel originally planned to hold the hearing in July. I. “Our public safety community requires reliable communications to respond adequately during an emergency,” said House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Communications Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C. “We look forward to considering ways to strengthen our public safety communications to better serve Americans in their moments of crisis.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday circulated two items targeting programs created under the Biden administration to fund Wi-Fi hot spots and Wi-Fi on school buses. Commissioner Anna Gomez immediately indicated she opposed cutting the programs, which have long been lightning rods for Republican objections.
West Kentucky and Tennessee (WK&T) Telecommunications Cooperative CEO Karen Jackson-Furman and other witnesses plan to highlight for the House Small Business Committee their hopes for a restarted congressional working group’s bid for a USF legislative revamp (see 2507030051), according to written testimony released ahead of Wednesday's hearing on broadband deployment’s effect on rural entrepreneurs. Some urge lawmakers to continue addressing internet affordability as part of the USF revamp. Several of the witnesses also back Republicans’ bid to further ease permitting reviews of connectivity projects, including via the controversial American Broadband Deployment Act (see 2305240069). The House Small Business hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2360 Rayburn.
Former Colorado lawmaker Cory Gardner will be the next head of NCTA, starting Sept. 22, the cable ISP organization announced Tuesday. He replaces Michael Powell, who said earlier this year he would retire. Gardner, a Republican and member of the Senate Commerce Committee, lost his reelection bid in 2020 against former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D). Prior to being elected to the Senate in 2014, Gardner spent four years in the U.S. House.
Rep. April McClain Delaney of Maryland and nine other House Democrats pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth this week to give states more “clarity” about how the agency's June 6 policy restructuring notice for the $42.5 billion BEAD program affects how they can spend grants on non-broadband deployment projects (see 2506060052). “We urge NTIA to issue formal clarification elucidating how States may use remaining BEAD funds [on] parallel investments in the foundational non-deployment activities that enable effective implementation and adoption,” said McClain Delaney, a former deputy NTIA administrator during the Biden administration, and her colleagues in a Monday letter to Lutnick and Roth. They want a response by Tuesday.
The White House's commercial space launch executive order, issued earlier this month (see 2508140004), will likely lead to the elimination of duplicative analyses that the FAA and other government agencies do, Covington staffers wrote Sunday. Space Force already does extensive analyses, such as calculating the expected casualty risks for every launch mission, and the FAA has said it would defer to federal range-safety processes for launches from the Eastern and Western ranges, wrote Stephanie Barna, Alan Estevez and Ethan Syster. However, they added, in practice the FAA still certifies those Space Force results independently, meaning launch providers and their customers can face two layers of scrutiny for the same safety models and data, which can increase confusion and delay. The FAA's ongoing review of its Part 450 space launch rules, backed by the order, "could address these pain points."
Political scrutiny of Skydance Media's purchase of Paramount Global is growing, with the ranking members of the House Commerce and Judiciary committees demanding Thursday to see internal company communications, as well as those between the FCC and the companies.