Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Monday night that he is unlikely to bring up for floor action this week a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res. 7) to undo the FCC's July 2024 order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Reports circulated Friday that Senate leaders were eyeing floor action as soon as this week on S.J.Res. 7. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas and 12 other panel Republicans filed the CRA measure in late January.

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that reimbursement requests submitted to the E-rate program, administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co., can be considered “claims” under the False Claims Act, said an opinion Friday authored by Justice Elena Kagan. The ruling in Wisconsin Bell v. U.S. allows a lawsuit by Todd Heath against provider Wisconsin Bell to go forward. “If the Government, by making direct payments, has provided even a small fraction of the money used to fund E-Rate reimbursements, the question presented here is resolved,” Kagan wrote. Both the FCC and DOJ provide portions of the funds used for E-rate reimbursements from enforcement actions against carriers, she said. “The Government was not a passive throughway for the transmission of E-rate moneys from one private party (the carrier) to another (the Administrative Company),” she wrote. “Nor were the Government’s activities confined to ‘facilitating’ such transfers, as Wisconsin Bell would have it.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority but also wrote concurring opinions. Thomas said the court’s ruling Friday is narrow, but the arguments made by the government would give the False Claims Act broader scope than previously understood and potentially mean that the Universal Service Administrative Co. is an agent of the government, rather than independent. That could mean it's unconstitutional, he said. “In a future case, however, we may need to confront the Government’s other arguments -- namely, that the FCA applies to funds that private parties pay to other private parties, and that the Administrative Company is an agent of the United States,” Thomas wrote. “If these issues return to us, I hope we will carefully consider their consequences.” Kavanaugh similarly said that Friday’s ruling could raise constitutional questions about the False Claims Act.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday night that President Donald Trump is nominating panel Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth as NTIA's leader, as expected. Lobbyists had previously also tipped Roth as a top contender for former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat but Trump nominated Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty for that role instead. Roth was previously a legislative aide to former Senate Commerce member Roy Blunt, R-Mo., O’Rielly’s wireline adviser and a Wireline Bureau legal adviser. She also had stints at the Hudson Institute and Federalist Society.

The FCC overstepped its statutory boundaries in trying to implement the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday, as it vacated part of the agency's 2023 robocall amid robotext order. In a 23-page decision (docket 24-10277), Judges Elizabeth Branch, Robert Luck and Barbara Lagoa sided with petitioner Insurance Marketing Coalition and said the 2023 order sets rules that conflict with the ordinary statutory meaning of the TCPA's "prior express consent" language. The 11th Circuit vacated the portion of the order that states that a consumer can't consent to a telemarketing or advertising robocall unless they consent to calls from only one entity at a time and consent only to calls whose subject matter is “logically and topically associated with the interaction that prompted the consent.” The 11th Circuit also remanded the order back to the FCC for further proceedings.

The FCC denied four challenges against broadcast stations at the bureau level in what outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said is “a stand on behalf of the First Amendment.” In two orders and two letters, the agency rejected three complaints from the Center for American Rights against stations owned by CBS, ABC and NBC, and a third against a Fox-owned station from the Media and Democracy Project. The Center for American Rights complaints accused NBC of violating the FCC’s equal opportunity rules with a Saturday Night Live appearance by Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS of violating the news distortion rules by editing an interview with Harris, and ABC for its moderation of a presidential debate between Harris and President-Elect Donald Trump. The MAD filing called for the FCC to hold a hearing on Fox’s fitness to hold FCC licenses in the wake of a 2023 Superior Court of Delaware ruling on a motion for summary judgment in Dominion Voting System’s defamation case against Fox over its 2020 election reporting. The CBS and ABC complaints were rejected by the Enforcement Bureau, the Fox and NBC filings by the Media Bureau. “The action we take makes clear two things,” said Rosenworcel in a released statement. “First, the FCC should not be the President’s speech police. Second, the FCC should not be journalism’s censor-in-chief.” Incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr has indicated support for the CAR filings.

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to nominate Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty to the FCC seat current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will vacate on Monday. Multiple former FCC officials and communications sector lobbyists told us they expected Trump would also announce Arielle Roth, the Senate Commerce Committee's Republican telecom policy director, as his pick for NTIA administrator as soon as Thursday. A range of ex-FCC officials and other observers previously tipped Trusty and Roth as the top contenders for the Rosenworcel seat.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery are calling off their planned Venu sports streaming joint venture. They announced Friday that "in an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels." Parties including some Democratic members of Congress had voiced antitrust concerns about the venture. Rival streaming service FuboTV this week reached a settlement that ended its litigation in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Venu.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the FCC’s latest net neutrality order, reclassifying broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act. A three-judge panel handed down the decision two months after hearing oral argument (see 2410310041).

The Senate voted 85-15 Wednesday to pass the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) with language that would authorize the AWS-3 reauction to offset $3.08 billion in funding for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden, who's expected to sign it.

A continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations through March 14 released Tuesday night includes language from the NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510), Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act (HR-8989/S-4569) and several other telecom bills. The CR meanwhile omits the revised AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449) despite its backers’ push to pass the measure before year’s end.