The American Federation of Government Employees condemned reported White House plans to revive Schedule F reclassification of civil servants. President Trump’s administration is planning to resurrect Schedule F under a new name, Schedule Policy/Career, Axios reported Friday. The rule change would strip numerous federal employees from civil service protections against termination, making them easier to fire at will. “President Trump’s action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government’s merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley in a release. “This is another in a series of deliberate moves by this administration to corrupt the federal government and replace qualified public servants with political cronies.”
The FCC is granting some official travel requests, Commissioner Nathan Simington’s office told us Thursday. A pause on official travel led to Simington’s last-minute cancellation of plans to speak at the NAB Show 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this month. Commissioner Anna Gomez paid her own way to attend (see 2504080036). Simington is set to go to Boston to speak Saturday at the Harvard Business School Infrastructure Summit. His staff said the FCC chairman’s office approved the trip, and they were told FCC employees could now travel to events. Gomez’s office told us Thursday that it was unaware travel was again being approved and that she had also self-funded a visit to Philadelphia last week (see 2504160046). FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz traveled to Colorado Springs to speak at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium the same day Gomez spoke at the NAB event, but it wasn’t clear if the FCC paid for his trip (see 2504100038). The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Google has willfully acquired and maintained monopoly power over online ads in violation of antitrust measures, ruled a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday.
The FCC is making available an extra $3.08 billion for carriers to remove Chinese gear from their networks under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest said. Congress approved the funding last year, to be paid for through the upcoming AWS-3 reauction. The Wireline Bureau notice said the Treasury Department transferred the money to the FCC to fully fund the rip-and-replace program.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the FCC to consider cutting numerous regulations, starting with broadband labels, in a filing this week in the commission’s “Delete” docket (25-133). The chamber called for a proceeding to review the broadband label order “with an eye toward removing needlessly burdensome requirements and promoting increased flexibility.” The FCC should close a Further NPRM on labels, the filing said.
Global smartphone shipments increased 1.5% year over year in the first three months of 2025, despite potential headwinds looming, IDC said Monday. Shipments rose to 304.9 million units, said an IDC report, which came after a confusing weekend for smartphones and the Trump administration's China trade policy.
FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz spoke Monday at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, two days after the FCC chairman’s office denied official travel requests from Commissioners Anna Gomez and Nathan Simington for the NAB Show in Las Vegas (see 2504040059). “Spoke at #40thSpaceSymposium about how the FCC’s Space Bureau has a bias for innovation under Chairman Brendan Carr and was happy explaining how the FCC will be reviewing outdated technical satellite rules so rural Americans can get great broadband,” Schwarz said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday. The FCC didn't respond to a request for comment on Schwarz's travel arrangements. Simington and Gomez also didn’t comment.
In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside a Maryland district judge’s injunction that had ordered various agencies to reinstate probationary federal employees fired by the Trump administration. The FCC wasn’t one of the agencies, but the action affects DOD and Department of Commerce employees.
The White House executive order requiring agencies to review and cancel contracts with and security clearances held by Jenner & Block is within the executive branch’s authority and intended to protect national security and taxpayer dollars, said a DOJ filing Tuesday. Jenner & Block frequently practices before the FCC. The order “directs agencies to do what they should already be doing, declines to contract with entities who act inconsistently with valid social policies regarding discrimination, and calls for the lawful examination of security clearances and government access,” it said. Jenner & Block’s request for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the order should be dismissed, DOJ said, since the government “has every right to use its procurement power” to discourage “discriminatory practices” such as diversity initiatives. Jenner & Block’s objections to provisions of the order directing agencies to issue guidance limiting the firm’s lawyers’ access to federal buildings and agency staff are premature, DOJ said. Since no such guidance has yet been issued, “this Court should reject them as unripe without even reaching the merits.” Jenner & Block “can only guess the degree to which agency heads will limit government access.”
President Donald Trump should “fully revoke” tariffs in the wake of his 90-day pause announcement Wednesday, said Consumer Technology Association CEO Gary Shapiro in a statement. “We appreciate President Trump's willingness to pause most tariffs,” but the additional 10% universal baseline tariffs, which are still in effect, and the “continued uncertainty” are “already hurting American small businesses,” Shapiro said. The pause doesn’t affect China, and in a post Wednesday on Truth Social, Trump announced an increase in tariffs on that country’s imports to 125%. Many consumer electronics are manufactured in China, including most iPhones. “CTA urges President Trump to focus his efforts on what he does best, dealmaking,” Shapiro said. “Now is the time to reposition the United States with our allies as a reliable trading partner while growing the American and global economy."