States face a challenge getting their BEAD final proposals to NTIA by the Sept. 4, but most will meet the deadline, Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter said Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum. Large states like Texas and California will probably need extensions, she told us. Reitter said she was fairly confident NTIA in turn would meet its deadline for reviewing the final proposals within 90 days of receiving them.
A White House executive order on regulation of novel space activities by the Commerce Department leaves uncertain what role, if any, the FCC will have in overseeing in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing, we're told. The EO, which President Donald Trump issued Wednesday, also looks to ease the regulatory hurdles for commercial space launches. The FCC commissioners unanimously approved an ISAM licensing framework NPRM 18 months ago (see 2402150053).
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., on Friday praised the FCC's adoption Thursday of its undersea cable order and accompanying Further NPRM (see 2508070037). The order aimed to simplify the approval process and address national security risks. “Subsea cables underpin the overwhelming majority of international internet traffic, and [the FCC's] unanimous decision protects that critical infrastructure from interference by our foreign adversaries,” Guthrie said. “Continued investment and streamlining our approval processes for submarine cable infrastructure will enhance the resiliency of these critical networks and enable the [U.S.] to expand our global technological dominance.” The U.S. “must defend against our adversaries, such as China, who seek to access and tamper with American networks.”
Supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979/S-315) are pressing for the House Commerce Committee and congressional leaders to prioritize the measure when lawmakers return from the August recess, given that they have repeatedly put it on the back burner in recent months. HR-979 and S-315, which the Senate Commerce Committee advanced in February (see 2502100072), would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology, mostly affecting electric vehicles. The bill’s supporters unsuccessfully tried to attach it to a December continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations (see 2412180033).
Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Wednesday she will seek her party's nomination next year to become Tennessee governor. President Donald Trump "is back [for a second term], America is blessed and Tennessee -- better than ever,” Blackburn said in a video announcement. She's running to make the state “America's conservative leader for this generation and the next.” In this Congress, Blackburn was a strong supporter of a successful push by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to move a spectrum pipeline as part of the budget reconciliation package that's larger than what the House Commerce Committee originally proposed (see 2505130059). She also chairs the Senate Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee and recently restarted the chamber's privacy legislation conversation. Blackburn, who won a second term last year (see 2411060001), was House Communications Subcommittee chair immediately before her first Senate election in 2018.
The recently relaunched bipartisan congressional working group studying a USF legislative revamp is seeking a new round of stakeholder comments about how to proceed and has opened a portal for submissions, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said Friday. Meanwhile, the Digital Progress Institute said in a white paper Thursday that USF's current contribution mechanism is “unsustainable” and “horrendously inefficient.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday night confirmed reports that he's urging President Donald Trump to pick Democratic nominees to the FCC and FTC in a bid to ease Democrats’ opposition to speeding up confirmations ahead of the August recess. Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others told us they’re skeptical that the Trump administration will follow through, given that the president didn’t pick minority-party nominees to independent commissions during the first six months of his term and fired sitting members of the FTC and other bodies.
Lawmakers and others are accusing the FCC of being involved in corruption and seeking to chill free speech after the agency’s approval of Skydance's $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global and the commission's retention of an open news distortion proceeding against CBS.
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday night postponed a planned Thursday markup session on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s FY 2026 funding bill, which would allocate $47 million to NTIA, including $1 million for facilities management and construction (see 2507140052). The panel still released its proposed report on its FY26 bill with language aimed at changing NTIA administration of the $42.5 billion BEAD program and other broadband initiatives.
Three top House Commerce Committee Democrats said Wednesday they're opening an investigation into reports that mobile virtual network operator Trump Mobile (see 2506160040) would operate on T-Mobile’s network, claiming that “raises the appearance of a quid pro quo between [the carrier] and President [Donald] Trump regarding the direction of our country’s spectrum policies.” Word of the probe came as T-Mobile announced it once again was the U.S. wireless industry leader on subscriber growth in Q2 (see 2507230066)