The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for counties in Kentucky affected by flooding, according to a pair of public notices Thursday. “Communications providers do not need to provide any additional reporting in DIRS in connection with this event,” said the DIRS notice. “This deactivation occurs at the request of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” said the MDRI notice.

The DOJ will no longer defend removal protections for administrative law judges, said Chad Mizelle, its chief of staff, in a release Thursday. The FCC has one administrative law judge, Jane Halprin. “Unelected and constitutionally unaccountable ALJs have exercised immense power for far too long,” Mizelle said. “In accordance with Supreme Court precedent, the Department is restoring constitutional accountability so that Executive Branch officials answer to the President and to the people.” The FCC has said in court filings (see 2304140058) that if its ALJ were declared unconstitutional, its ability to hold hearings wouldn’t be affected because FCC rules allow commissioners to preside over them. Standard General raised arguments that the FCC ALJ is unconstitutional during the hearing proceeding over its blocked purchase of Tegna in 2023.

A disaster information reporting system update Thursday showed 1,081 cable and wireline subscribers without service in 10 Kentucky counties affected by the recent floods. That’s an improvement over the 8,708 reported down Wednesday. DIRS showed one cellsite down in the affected area, compared with three reported Wednesday. No broadcast stations were listed as out of service. The FCC issued public notices this week on priority communications services, FCC availability and emergency communication procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.

The FCC should “assume a less interventionist regulatory posture by narrowing the exercise of its public interest authority,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May in a blog post Thursday. He said a narrower definition of “public interest” should apply in merger reviews and administration of the USF. The FCC “should reform the merger review process by announcing a policy that, absent extraordinary circumstances, it will largely defer to the DOJ’s and FTC’s expertise regarding any competitive concerns.” He called for the agency to “refrain from imposing ‘voluntary' conditions on merger proponents that are unrelated to compliance with existing statutory or regulatory requirements.” Narrower definitions are also needed when the FCC periodically reviews regulations to determine if they are still in the public interest, May said. The FCC “should assert that it possesses the discretion to narrow the scope of its public interest determination in the regulatory review proceedings to effectuate their obvious deregulatory intent." When deciding whether to forebear from enforcing unnecessary rules, the FCC should consider itself to have satisfied the public interest if the rule in question isn’t needed to ensure provider practices are just or protect consumers, May said. “Then, the forbearance provision could be used, as Congress intended, to eliminate many of the legacy regulations which remain on the Commission's books.”

Jones Day’s Yaakov Roth, husband of NTIA nominee Arielle Roth, withdrew Thursday as counsel to Maurine and Matthew Molak in their challenge in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a 2023 FCC declaratory ruling (docket 23-60641) clarifying that Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose eligible for E-rate funding (see 2411040061). Jones Day’s David Suska will still represent the Molaks, Yaakov Roth said in a letter to the 5th Circuit. Some lobbyists wondered whether the NTIA nominee’s Senate Commerce Committee critics would mention Yaakov Roth because of his role in the Molaks’ E-rate challenge and because he argued on behalf of plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of West Virginia v. EPA, which led the court in 2022 to fully adopt the “major questions” doctrine (see 2502040056).

The National Federation of Independent Business’ Small Business Legal Center joined Consumers’ Research in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject how the FCC handles USF. FCC v. Consumers' Research, which SCOTUS will hear March 26, challenges the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating how the USF program is funded (see 2501090045).

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called three of his predecessors -- Democrats Tom Wheeler and Reed Hundt and Republican Alfred Sikes -- partisans with "TDS," or Trump derangement syndrome, after they condemned Carr's actions against media companies, according to a report in Status. “I gotta imagine it’s hard when the curtain is closing on your career and yet you’re still yearning for one more moment in the limelight,” Carr said. Hundt told Status that the FCC’s independence was intended to keep it from being used as a weapon to reward friends and punish enemies, while Sikes said the First Amendment should be “foundational” to the way the FCC acts. Wheeler said he reached “a breaking point” when the FCC announced an investigation into Comcast over its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. “They’re just partisans that are mad the Biden FCC didn’t do more to punish their political enemies,” Carr said. “In contrast to them, though, I will ensure that everyone gets a fair shake from this FCC.”

CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom on Wednesday asked the FCC to reconsider a January declaratory ruling by the FCC in response to the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, which now-FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had opposed (see 2501160041). The ruling concluded that Section 105 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) “affirmatively requires telecommunications carriers to secure their networks from unlawful access or interception of communications.” An accompanying NPRM seeks comment “on ways to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of our nation’s communications systems and services.” Members of the associations “were early adopters of cybersecurity risk management practices, collaborate on these issues with government agencies, and participate in public-private partnerships,” said a petition for reconsideration in docket 22-329. The ruling, “adopted in the waning days of the prior administration without any opportunity for public comment, supplants this longstanding collaborative approach,” the groups said. It also established “an ‘uncoordinated … and counterproductive’ policy based on an expansive reading” of CALEA “that imposes onerous network-wide duties on covered entities.” The ruling is inconsistent “with CALEA’s text, structure, and purpose,” they said: “Congress did not intend for CALEA to evolve into a general cybersecurity statute over three decades after its enactment.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr mocked singer Sheryl Crow, described former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as an expert in incompetence, and called Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., “very shifty” in a series of posts on X during the weekend, apparently defending SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Crow posted a video on Instagram that showed her Tesla being hauled away, with a caption saying she donated the money to NPR, "which is under threat by President Musk," in protest of recent efforts to defund the broadcaster. Carr reposted the video Saturday and called it an argument for why taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize NPR stations. “Bravo,” said Carr, who has opened an investigation into PBS and NPR underwriting. “Wouldn’t take too many celebrities following Sheryl Crow’s lead and selling their cars to keep NPR going without taxpayer dollars,” he added in a second post.

An emergency petition Sunday by the executive branch seeking U.S. Supreme Court intervention to block courts from interfering with the removal of the head of the Office of Special Counsel could have implications for the president’s removal power over FCC commissioners, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May in a blog post Tuesday. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris asked SCOTUS to vacate a temporary restraining order barring the removal of Office of Special Counsel leader Hampton Dellinger as “an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers.” Blocking the president from removing presidential appointees under his authority “inflicts the gravest of injuries on the Executive Branch and the separation of powers,” said the emergency petition. In it, Harris restated DOJ's argument (see 2502140047) that tenure protections for members of multimember commissions are unconstitutional. “If this view ultimately prevails in the Supreme Court, a president's authority to remove an FCC commissioner without providing any reason would be assured,” May said. The court could instead rule that Dellinger could be ousted based on language in the statute that allows the head of the Office of Special Counsel to be removed for inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty, he added. Other agencies targeted in a recent letter to Congress from the Solicitor General -- such as the FTC and the National Labor Relations Board -- are based on statutes with similar language, but that language isn’t present in the Communications Act. That could be “determinative” if a president ever tries to remove an FCC commissioner, May said. He included a disclaimer at the end of his post clarifying that he isn't advocating for White House removal of FCC commissioners.