CTIA announced Wednesday that former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been named president and CEO, effective April 1. Pai replaces Meredith Baker, also a former Republican member of the FCC, who has had the job since 2014.

The FCC is calling for suggestions on which of its rules should be eliminated in a docket (25-133) called “In re: Delete, Delete, Delete,” the agency announced in a news release and public notice Wednesday. “The FCC is committed to ending all of the rules and regulations that are no longer necessary. And we welcome the public’s participation and feedback throughout this process,” said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release. “For too long, administrative agencies have added new regulatory requirements in excess of their authority or kept lawful regulations in place long after their shelf life had expired.” The effort is linked to White House executive orders on deregulation and the Department of Government Efficiency, the release said. “We are seeking public input on identifying FCC rules for the purpose of alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens,” the public notice said.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the FCC was right that Gray Television violated the agency's top-four rule with the broadcast chain's purchase in 2020 of another broadcaster’s CBS network affiliation in the Anchorage market, but the court on Friday vacated the $518,000 forfeiture penalty. In a docket 22-14274 opinion, the appellate court also remanded the proceeding back to the agency. Judges William Pryor, Andrew Brasher and Adalberto Jordan said the forfeiture penalty was wrongly based in part on an egregiousness finding that Gray wasn't given an opportunity to address. They said the forfeiture penalty was also arbitrary and capricious because the FCC didn't adequately explain its consideration of Gray’s good faith. In a concurring opinion joined by Pryor, Brasher said the FCC's Note 11 rule, barring affiliation swaps, may exceed the agency's authority. "Had this issue been properly raised, I very likely would have voted to vacate the forfeiture order in its entirety," they said.

NCTA President Michael Powell is retiring by year-end, the cable industry group said Thursday. He has held the position since spring 2011. Powell, 61, spent a term as FCC commissioner, starting in November 2007, and then served as chairman from 2001 through March 2005. Powell's "strategic insight and commitment have shaped the cable industry’s most significant achievements, and his leadership will be greatly missed," NCTA board Chairman and Cox Communications President Mark Greatrex said. NCTA said it would begin a national search for a successor.

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.