A petition from a nonprofit representing U.S. Ukrainians urging the FCC to designate for hearing the licenses of the owners of a Washington, D.C., area station that airs Radio Sputnik is unlikely to succeed but could lead to a costly process, said broadcast and First Amendment attorneys in interviews Wednesday.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo headed to Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with lawmakers and continue pushing for Congress to pass its China package as quickly as possible. She met with the Senate Finance Committee and held a news conference with Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Mark Warner, D-Va. “We have to decrease our dependence on other countries, and the way to do that is make more chips in America,” she said. “We need Congress to get it to the president’s desk as quickly as possible.”
Proposed challenge process changes don’t seem like enough to fix problems with the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s broadband grant program, Commissioner Crystal Rhoades said at a partially virtual hearing Tuesday. The PSC awarded about $18 million in grants last year under the $40 million Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program, with Rhoades dissenting (see 2201040050).
Commercial space operations are in dire need of stronger regulatory oversight both domestically and globally, company CEOs and others said Tuesday at the Satellite 2022 conference. Industry and company officials also warned about a worsening interference environment as satellite traffic balloons.
Backers of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1541) believe changes to the measure the Senate Commerce Committee approved Tuesday greatly strengthened its prospects of passing Congress this year. S-1541 and the similar Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act (HR-2489) would bar communications providers from receiving site commissions from prisons and other confinement facilities (see 2104160067). Senate Commerce advanced the amended S-1541 and two other measures -- the Next Generation Telecommunications Act (S-3014) and Low Power Protection Act (S-3405) -- on voice votes.
The FAA “lost a lot of credibility” in how it handled the C band, seeking to stop deployment on the eve of when buildout was supposed to start (see 2201040070), said Harris Wiltshire’s Tricia Paoletta during a Federalist Society spectrum webinar Tuesday. “This was a huge debacle” and embarrassment for everyone involved, she said. Paoletta warned “another nightmare” could be in the offing.
It remained unclear Tuesday afternoon if Senate leaders would move to hold initial votes later this week on Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn and FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya, amid uncertainties about whether all 50 Democratic caucus members will be available to appear on the floor. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told us earlier in the day that chamber Democratic leaders were eyeing floor votes this week to discharge Bedoya and Sohn from the committee’s jurisdiction (see 2203220034). Senate Commerce voted 14-14 earlier this month on Bedoya and Sohn, meaning the full chamber would need to vote to discharge both nominees before lawmakers could act on their confirmations (see 2203030070).
The FCC’s decision to start the 2.5 GHz auction July 29 doesn’t allow much wiggle room to complete the sale by Sept. 30 when the FCC’s auction authority expires, industry experts said. The FCC will do an ascending clock auction, as expected (see 2203100051), starting that date, said a notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The agency also said it’s launching a mapping tool that can be used to help determine whether and to what extent unassigned 2.5 GHz spectrum is available in any U.S. county. The FCC will sell some 8,000 new flexible-use geographic overlay licenses in the band.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., expressed optimism Monday that Congress can begin conference negotiations on its China package before the end of the work period, as planned by Senate leadership (see 2203140059).
The Arizona Corporation Commission should cancel state USF, cable and wireless companies said in comments Friday on a March 4 notice of inquiry on possibly sweeping changes. The ACC had asked about expanding Arizona USF support to broadband -- or eliminating the fund altogether (see 2203070031). Wireline companies disagreed with ending AUSF, with Lumen favoring making it a broadband fund.