The design of the U.S. universal service subsidy regime is inherently flawed and lacks strong oversight, Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Policy Analyst Solveig Singleton wrote this week. Rather than reform, it should be scrapped in favor of a market-centered policy that would better provide universal service at a reasonable price, she said. Existing universal service mechanisms "are unnecessary, price- and market-distortive, wasteful, and unaccountable [and] amount to a regressive and constitutionally inappropriate tax." Singleton said subsidies to high-cost areas "are no longer necessary," since mobile and satellite service have eliminated such areas. USF is also made superfluous by other subsidy programs supporting the deployment of advanced services, she added. Instead, she argued in favor of "voucher-type subsidies for low-income users," as that approach -- funded from general tax revenue -- "would limit distortion of consumers’ and carriers’ decisions." Any subsidies for rural health care and educational institutions should be funded from general revenue as well, she said. "Competitive neutrality would be restored."

Greater use of unlicensed fixed wireless (ULFW) could reduce the number of remaining BEAD-eligible locations by up to 15%, as long as ULFW providers meet technical requirements, according to an analysis Tuesday by New York Law School's Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute. ACLP said NTIA's BEAD restructuring notice, issued earlier this month (see 2506060052), allows ULFW to compete for BEAD grants, while locations served by ULFW are potentially no longer eligible for funding. The resulting reduction in eligible locations varies widely from state to state, the analysis said, with some seeing as much as a 30% decrease and others seeing almost no change. Rural Digital Opportunity Fund defaults, meanwhile, could raise the number of eligible locations by 3%, it added.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez visited Letcher County, Kentucky, in the latest stop on her “First Amendment Tour” series of panel discussions. In a release Wednesday, Gomez said the White House and FCC’s “unprecedented efforts to censor and control speech reach every community, including the coal towns and mountain communities of Eastern Kentucky.” Her message to the state: “Now is the time to stand up and push back against this assault on free expression and remind those in power that the First Amendment is not optional.” Gomez’s Kentucky event was organized by the Center for Rural Strategies, a nonprofit “focused on improving economic and social conditions for rural communities around the world through the creative use of media and communications,” the release said.

President Donald Trump would have issued an order ending collective bargaining for the FCC and numerous other federal agencies even if he didn’t have retaliatory motives, the White House said Monday in filings in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The filings were made in the National Treasury Employees Union’s challenge of Trump’s executive order that removed collective bargaining rights at roughly 40 agencies on national security grounds, affecting two-thirds of the federal workforce (see 2506100045). They included a motion for summary judgment, as well as a response to NTEU's own motion for summary judgment.

Comments are due July 23, replies Aug. 22, regarding the FCC's proposal to codify some long-standing processes regarding foreign-ownership rules for broadcasters, common carriers and aeronautical radio licensees, the Media Bureau said Monday. Commissioners unanimously adopted the foreign-ownership NPRM at their April meeting (see 2504280038). The docket is 25-149.

Republican Olivia Trusty took office Monday as an FCC commissioner, as expected (see 2506200052). Cooley’s Robert McDowell, a former Republican commissioner, confirmed Trusty’s swearing-in on X. “Great to be at the [FCC] to see Olivia Trusty be sworn in as America’s newest Commissioner,” McDowell said. Republicans now have a majority at the agency, a shift that some see as portending quick action on items that Chairman Brendan Carr couldn’t advance with a tie. The Senate confirmed Trusty last week to two consecutive terms (see 2506180076). The FCC didn’t immediately comment.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday confirmed a report that the FCC is investigating participants in its voluntary cyber trust mark program for possible ties to China. Carr and all the other commissioners voted for the launch of the program in March 2024 (see 2403140034). It has been championed, in particular, by the Consumer Technology Association, which didn’t comment Friday.

The FCC has an important but still limited role to play in cybersecurity, said Joshua Levine, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. The agency is rightly attempting to crack down on the authorization and use of unsecure telecom equipment in the U.S., including through its recent "bad labs" order (see 2505220056), he said. While the commission is well positioned to oversee the security of devices and the supply chain, he argued that it probably shouldn’t serve as the lead agency on cybersecurity.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez were among many communications policymakers and stakeholders who congratulated Republican Commissioner-designate Olivia Trusty on Tuesday night and Wednesday. The Senate voted 53-45 Wednesday to confirm Trusty to a five-year term that begins July 1 (see 2506180076). It cleared her Tuesday to finish the term of former Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, which ends June 30 (see 2506170072).

The 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court asked both sides to file briefs about the implications of Wednesday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas on the school bus Wi-Fi case before the circuit. Judges heard oral argument in November (see 2411040061) on overturning the FCC’s declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040). The court asked for briefs of no more than five pages.