Consolidated Communications' purchase by Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management is expected to close on Friday, Consolidated said in an SEC filing. The deal received FCC approval earlier this month (see 2412100031). Consolidated said it was the last regulatory approval needed.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel will hear oral argument Feb. 11 in Indian Peak Properties' challenge of an FCC order about over-the-air reception devices rule, said an order in court docket 24-1108. Indian Peak is appealing an FCC order denying its petitions for declaratory ruling seeking a federal preemption under the OTARDs rule of a Rancho Palos Verdes, California, decision to revoke, under local ordinances, the company’s conditional use permit for the deployment of rooftop antennas on a local property (see 2405060035).

President Joe Biden signed off Monday on the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) with language that allocates $3.08 billion in funding for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412110067). Congress passed the measure earlier this month (see 2412180033). The NDAA gives the FCC $3.08 billion in Treasury Department borrowing authority through 2033 for rip-and-replace reimbursements. It offsets the rip-and-replace funding by authorizing the FCC to reauction the 197 AWS-3 licenses that Dish and affiliated designated entities returned to the commission last year.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected a petition for review that China Unicom (Americas) brought seeking to overturn the FCC’s 2022 decision revoking the company’s Section 214 authority to operate in the U.S. (see 2201270030). The decision was 2-1 with Judge Daniel Collins writing a majority opinion supported by Judge Kenneth Lee. Judge Carlos Bea dissented. The majority held that the commission “correctly interpreted its authority under the Communications Act” and that the “grant of authority to ‘issue’ certificates to telecommunications carriers must be understood as carrying with it an implied incidental authority to revoke such certificates.” The court reviewed the FCC’s authority under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondi, which overturned the Chevron doctrine, and found that the revocation was within the FCC’s discretion to act (see 2406280043). “There was no indication in the statutory text or structure that Congress denied the FCC any relevant authority to revoke a carrier’s [Section] 214 certificate,” the majority held. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” Bea wrote in his dissent: “Today, the majority declares that” the FCC “may act as the Lord in canceling telecommunications certificates. … I disagree. Unlike the majority, I find myself constrained by the text of the statute and a regard to separation of powers principles of our Constitution to resolve this case otherwise.” All three judges were Republican appointees -- President George W. Bush appointed Bea and President Donald Trump appointed Lee and Collins.

Jessica Rosenworcel’s last open meeting as FCC chair Jan. 15 will feature a series of staff presentations about accomplishments, but no votes or orders are expected, according to a tentative agenda released Monday. Rosenworcel last month announced she plans to step down Jan. 20 (see (2411210028). “Senior Bureau, Office, and Task Force staff will lead a series of presentations” on topics that include “the agency’s work on making communications more just for more people in more places,” and “the agency’s work on national security, public safety, and protecting consumers,” the release said. Other presentations will focus on the FCC’s work expanding access to modern communications and the future of communications, the release said.

President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday he plans to nominate Michael Kratsios, the U.S. chief technology officer during his first term, as White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director. Kratsios said to “ensure our Nation’s prosperity and security, we must unleash scientific breakthroughs and ensure America's technological dominance. Now we have the President who will make it happen. A Golden Age of American Innovation lies ahead!” Trump said he’s also naming Lynne Parker, who directs the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology's National AI Initiative Office, to be PCAST’s executive director. He framed both actions as aimed at the incoming administration’s desire to “unleash scientific breakthroughs, ensure America’s technological dominance, and usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation!” PCAST “will assemble America's most distinguished minds in science and technology to advise our Administration on critical issues like Artificial Intelligence,” Trump said. He previously announced that incoming White House AI and "cryptocurrency czar" David Sacks will chair PCAST. Trump said he’s forming a separate Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, with Republican former North Carolina congressional candidate Bo Hines as its executive director. The advisory group, which Sacks will chair, aims to “foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space, while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed,” Trump said: “Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish, and remain a cornerstone of our Nation's technological advancement.”

President Joe Biden signed off Saturday on the continuing resolution that will extend appropriations to the FCC and other federal agencies through March 14 (HR-10545), as expected (see 2412200062). The Senate voted 85-11 for the CR early Saturday morning, after House passage of the measure Friday evening. The measure lacks language from the NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510) and several other telecom and tech bills that congressional leaders included in a more expansive CR proposal earlier last week (see 2412170081). It contains an extension of some temporary rules changes around Medicare recipients’ eligibility for telehealth services, which Congress enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2006150032).

The FCC will close Dec. 24 as part of the President Joe Biden executive order issued Thursday giving the day off to most federal employees, in addition to the Dec. 25 federal holiday.

Groups challenging a 2023 update of the FCC's electronic equipment authorization and testing rules -- Public.Resource.Org, iFixit and Make Community (see 2403280002) -- lack standing to do so, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In an order filed Thursday (docket 23-1311), a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel dismissed their petition for review, saying their standing isn't readily apparent, and they made no attempt to argue standing in their opening brief. The petitioners argued that the update, which adopted four privately developed standards, didn't include the standards themselves in the Federal Register notice but instead incorporated them by reference. As such, they argued the FCC should redo the rules update because the standards weren't readily and freely available to the public. Deciding were Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Florence Pan.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., confirmed to us Wednesday she has changed her mind and now wants Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to pick her as Communications Subcommittee chair when he takes over the panel in January. Fischer previously said she wasn’t interested in taking over as lead Communications Republican from current ranking member John Thune, R-S.D. (see 2402290057), who will become Senate majority leader in January. Fischer didn’t explain why she now wants to lead the subcommittee but indicated “we’re working it out” now with Cruz. “Obviously, I’m the senior” Republican on Senate Commerce after Cruz, Thune and Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and therefore would traditionally get the Communications gavel because “I’ve asked to have it,” Fischer said. “That’s how it works.” Fischer is senior to Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., whose presence as a fill-in for Thune during a Senate Communications hearing last week provoked discussion conversation about whether he was in line for the subpanel gavel (see 2412170053). A Fischer elevation to Senate Communications chair could put her in conflict with Cruz on some spectrum legislative issues. Fischer, who's also a senior Armed Services member, opposes using a spectrum package to mandate an FCC sale of any portion of the DOD-controlled 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2403210063). Cruz favors a lower 3 GHz sale.