The demand for broadband infrastructure deployment job applicants and the supply of people trained in those fiber installation and construction fields are misaligned to a concerning degree, industry and educational experts warn. Some fear that companies will post many job openings at once, as BEAD money starts flowing to subgrantees, Lindsey Ekstrand, Youngstown (Ohio) State University director-workforce education programs, said. "No one is going to be ready for that," she warned during a Wireless Infrastructure Association event Thursday.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to nominate Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty to the FCC seat that current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will vacate Jan. 20. Multiple former FCC officials and communications sector lobbyists told us they expected Trump would also announce as soon as Thursday that Senate Commerce Committee Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth is his pick for NTIA administrator. A range of ex-FCC officials and other observers previously named Trusty and Roth as top contenders for the Rosenworcel seat, although some believed Roth’s ties to Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made her a slight front-runner (see 2412110046).
The FCC’s bureau-level rejections of four content-based legal challenges against network-owned TV stations Thursday could complicate future agency moves against broadcasters over their reporting but won’t prevent it, attorneys and free speech advocates told us. When he becomes chair next week, Commissioner Brendan Carr could quickly reverse the Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau decisions rejecting challenges against ABC-, Fox-, NBC- and CBS- owned stations. However, doing so could require the agency to defend upending decades of precedent, broadcaster and public interest attorneys told us. The decisions “draw a bright line at a moment when clarity about government interference with the free press is needed more than ever,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release Thursday. “The FCC should not be the President’s speech police.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases are marked with an *.
WTA and a group of healthcare entities filed amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court urging the court to overturn the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program. The briefs supported arguments of the FCC (see 2501090045), the telecom industry and public interest groups (see 2501100057). Consumer group Public Citizen warned of negative effects beyond the FCC if SCOTUS upholds the 5th Circuit decision. Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's final monthly meeting was largely a victory lap for the outgoing leader, with commission officials offering more than two hours of testimony Wednesday detailing accomplishments during her tenure. Also, Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized what she called an "apparent campaign to bring broadcasters and content platforms to heel" -- a seeming jab at Commissioner Brendan Carr's commitment to battle a "censorship cartel" (see 2411180059, 2412160052 and 2411080046).
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said during the panel’s Wednesday organizational meeting (see 2501130031) that Republicans are “prepared to put the country on a new course” from the Biden administration’s approach “where we close the digital divide and make sure everyone can enjoy the exciting technological developments that have only just begun.” Guthrie is among congressional GOP leaders open to clawing back $42.5 billion allocated to the BEAD program (see 2412270035).
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency may struggle to make the deep cuts in the federal workforce it seeks, experts said during a discussion at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs late Monday. Moreover, Trump would face legal challenges implementing Schedule F, which would strip federal employees of civil service protections and facilitate replacing them with Trump loyalists, they said (see 2407110054).
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at fast-tracking the buildout of large-scale AI infrastructure in the U.S. Meanwhile, during an Analysys Mason webinar, industry officials said the telecom industry remains in the very early stages of figuring out how it will use AI.
Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth during his Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing appeared to lean against repurposing portions of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band with commercial wireless use, an issue that stalled negotiations during the last Congress on spectrum legislation and is likely to be a flashpoint this year (see Ref:2501070069]). Senate Armed Services member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was the only panel member who mentioned DOD’s spectrum priorities in the incoming Donald Trump administration during the hearing, which was at times rancorous and primarily focused on the nominee’s past behavior and statements.