The Maryland Supreme Court couldn't allow Comcast and Verizon to circumvent state legislative intent to resolve tax disputes through the administrative remedy process, Chief Justice Matthew Fader said Wednesday on the ISPs' challenge to the state's digital ad tax. The state’s high court released an opinion explaining its May 9 decision to overturn a Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County ruling that the tax is unconstitutional. The companies should have challenged the tax in the Maryland Tax Court, an expert administrative agency, before seeking judicial review, Fader said.

Companies holding international Communications Act Section 214 authorizations should be preparing for the FCC’s one-time data collection authorized in April (see 2304270039) and brace for tighter foreign-ownership disclosure rules and additional filing requirements to come out of that order’s accompanying NPRM, said Morgan Lewis attorneys Patricia Cave and Ulises Pin in an Incompas webinar Wednesday. Once the data collection order takes effect, companies need to “start reacting relatively quickly because there's going to be a short window in order to react” -- probably 30 days -- and the penalty for failure to do so could be “significant,” said Pin.

The House Communications Subcommittee unanimously approved the NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510), the Spectrum Relocation Enhancement Act (HR-3430) and two other telecom bills in a show of bipartisan cooperation Wednesday, promoting the authority of the NTIA (see 2307110079).

Senate Democratic officials and other observers now believe it's a matter of when, not if, the chamber will confirm FCC nominee Anna Gomez and renominated Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks after the Commerce Committee advanced them Wednesday, all on non-unanimous voice votes, as expected (see 2307110071). Backers of Gomez and Starks and other observers cited unified committee Democratic support for Gomez and Starks as a sign they may get unanimous caucus backing on the floor. At least one of the four Commerce Republicans who didn't oppose the Democratic nominees Wednesday plans to vote for them on the floor.

Another possible increase to the Oklahoma USF surcharge shows the state’s 2021 switch to connections-based contribution was a “total failure,” CTIA claimed Monday. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday considered increasing the Oklahoma USF (OUSF) surcharge to $2.02 per connection. OUSF Administrator Mark Argenbright disagreed with CTIA that the connections-based method is anticompetitive.

FCC Precision Ag Task Force members met Tuesday to hear updates from working group leadership and to hear from state officials and the FCC broadband data task force on federal funding to expand broadband. The meeting was the first to include an in-person option since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

The FCC was in the hot seat Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral argument in League of California Cities v. FCC (case 20-71765) on a challenge to a wireless siting declaratory ruling approved in June 2020 under former Chairman Ajit Pai (see 2006090060).

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune of South Dakota predicted “some Republican support” for advancing Democratic FCC nominee Anna Gomez and incumbent Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in the Commerce Committee Wednesday. At least three of the 13 panel GOP members were believed to be seriously considering voting for Gomez as of Tuesday afternoon, communications policy lobbyists told us.

The U.S. shouldn’t pursue AI legislation unless it applies to specific harms not covered by current law, tech associations told the White House in comments due Friday.

Industry observers expect the FCC's Thursday forum on AI to be mostly an information gathering session as the agency focuses on one of the hot topics of the year but said questions remain about how large a role, or even what role, the FCC could play in rapidly emerging field. The AI forum is the agency's first since 2018 (see 1811300051).