Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.

Oklahoma is aiming to bring high-speed internet to 95% of its residents by 2028 in a major push to close the digital divide, said Oklahoma Broadband Office Executive Director Mike Sanders during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Sanders outlined how the state is using a mix of federal funding, tribal partnerships and strategic planning to expand fiber coverage (see 2505050060). "We'll be north of that" 95% mark, Sanders said, "but it's going to take all the other federal programs and the flexibility for our state to achieve that."

Infrastructure companies need consistent rules on 811 and call-before-you-dig requirements, Common Ground Alliance President Sarah Magruder Lyle and other experts said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr faced pushback Wednesday from Democrats on the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee about the legality of the commission’s pressure campaign against communications sector companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs and over the agency’s workforce reductions. Subpanel Republicans spun in favor of the FCC’s efficiency and highlighted other actions the commission has taken since Carr became chairman Jan. 20.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered positive but different interpretations of President Donald Trump’s apparent endorsement Tuesday (see 2505200058) of the spectrum language cleared in the lower chamber's One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package (HR-1). The two leaders were vague about whether Trump’s statement makes it more difficult for Cruz and other senators to press for potential changes to the spectrum proposal (see 2505130059). Meanwhile, the House Rules Committee was still debating Wednesday afternoon plans for bringing HR-1 to the floor.

There are many reasons why carriers worldwide have moved slowly to 5G stand-alone (SA) networks, said Dawood Shahdad, Boost Mobile vice president-core network and innovation labs, during an RCR Wireless telco cloud and edge forum Tuesday.

NTIA joined the submarine cable industry in voicing concerns about parts of the FCC's proposed rewrite of its subsea cable rules. In docket 24-523 reply comments this week, NTIA, the subsea cable industry and allies called instead for using the proceeding to streamline existing rules. FCC Commissioners adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006). Initial comments on the NPRM saw pushback from industry (see 2504150002).

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s announced plan to forgo notice-and-comment procedures when rescinding rules could run afoul of administrative law, some experts said. Carr said the agency may look to the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) good-cause exception to notice-and-comment requirements in its efforts to remove no-longer-enforced rules (see 2505160064). An April White House memorandum said notice and comment aren't required when eliminating rules that it contends run counter to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Loper Bright. FCC Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said the commission might employ declaratory rulings as a way of eliminating what Carr determines are invalid rules.

A few tweaks are likely for the “bad labs” order and Further NPRM set for a vote at Thursday's FCC meeting, industry officials active in the proceeding told us. The item is expected to receive unanimous approval. It would prohibit FCC recognition of a telecommunications certification body, lab or lab accreditation body owned by a company on the agency’s covered list and other government rosters of unsecure companies (see 2505010037).

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is defending cuts to the agency’s workforce and other actions in written testimony ahead of the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s planned Wednesday hearing on commission oversight. Carr also urges Congress again to restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority, as House GOP leaders aimed to pass, as soon as Wednesday night, their One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation package with spectrum language included. The House Appropriations Financial Services hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2358-A Rayburn.