SpaceX denies that it's trying to grab a $2.4 billion Verizon FAA contract (see 2503030035). The satellite operator wrote Wednesday on X that it's working with the agency and L3Harris, the prime contractor for FAA telecommunications infrastructure, on testing Starlink as one part of an upgrade to that infrastructure. "There is no effort or intent for Starlink to 'take over' any existing contract," it said.

President Donald Trump urged lawmakers Tuesday night to “get rid” of the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which allocated $52 billion for domestic semiconductor manufacturing (see 2207280060). The law “is a horrible, horrible thing,” Trump said during his Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress. He asked House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to use “whatever’s left over” in unobligated Chips and Science Act funding “to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.” Trump was sharply critical of the statute during the 2024 presidential campaign, saying subsidies were a bad idea (see 2412090046). Johnson drew heat himself during the closing days of the campaign by first calling for Congress to repeal the Chips and Science Act and then quickly reversing course (see 2411040062).

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are likely the key votes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers Humphrey’s Executor, the 1935 decision that allows Congress to limit a president’s ability to remove senior officials, TechFreedom Internet Policy Counsel Corbin Barthold wrote Tuesday in The Bulwark. “For as long as modern conservative legal thought has existed, there has been a campaign to overturn Humphrey’s Executor,” Barthold wrote. “The decision, which sustained a provision that insulated the five leaders of the [FTC] from being removed without cause, became the foundation for so-called independent agencies,” but it’s not “a strong decision,” he said. President Franklin Roosevelt saw it as “an effort to rebuke him” by a then-conservative SCOTUS, and “modern legal scholars tend to agree.”

The antitrust policies of President Donald Trump's second administration continue to take shape, though it's expected that the FTC and DOJ will be less aggressive in rejecting mergers compared with Joe Biden's administration, experts said Tuesday during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar.

Some BEAD critics claim deployment is moving too slowly due to bureaucracy and inflation, but there are also "entrenched and deliberate obstacles" from incumbent broadband providers, COS Systems Vice President-North America Sales Adam Puckett wrote Tuesday. He said that while FCC broadband maps are a big improvement over Form 477 data, they still undercount broadband serviceable locations. Moreover, state preemption laws that restrict or ban municipal broadband -- often the result of lobbying efforts by incumbent ISPs -- are "a potential legal and political minefield for the BEAD program." BEAD rollout also faces capacity challenges at state broadband offices, he said. As such, he called for the FCC to prioritize fixing broadband maps and states to give municipalities additional leeway in providing broadband.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington wants his colleagues to speak only English during FCC proceedings in the wake of a White House executive order declaring it as the U.S.’s official language, he said in a post on X Monday. The post seemed aimed at fellow FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who sometimes reads a Spanish version of her meeting statements. During last week’s FCC open meeting, Simington -- who was born and raised in Canada -- read out one of his statements in Romanian, seeming to mock Gomez.

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) questioned SpaceX's advocacy last summer that satellite earth stations should be included as part of the FCC's light-licensing framework for the 70/80 GHz band. Including earth stations “would promote rapid deployment of satellite backhaul networks to support high-speed, low-latency connectivity for American consumers in all parts of the country,” SpaceX said. The company concedes the need to protect fixed service use of the band, but its proposals “remain insufficient,” FWCC said in a filing posted Friday in docket 20-133. “FWCC supports well-managed spectrum sharing as a solution to spectrum scarcity,” the filing said: “However, the rules adopted in shared bands must fully protect all licensees in the band and should maximize licensed access to the band, especially where a new service has the potential to foreclose access to significant portions of the band.”

The status of the FTC's "click to cancel" rule, which is being challenged by NCTA and others before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2411220029), is unclear under the new presidential administration, Venable wrote this week. New FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson voted against the rule when it was originally promulgated, and arguments that Commissioner Melissa Holyoak made in her dissent were seemingly echoed in the petitioners' brief before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Venable. President Donald Trump's executive order requiring regulatory agency leaders to assess rules for potential rescission or modification "add[s] to the uncertainty of the rule's future," it said.

The FCC has sent letters to U.S. tech companies that are regulated under the EU’s Digital Services Act, offering to help them oppose “censorship requests coming from Europe,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a post-meeting press conference Thursday. Europe's DSA is “very discriminatory” and “Orwellian” and requires U.S. platforms to censor speech, Carr said. The letters -- sent to Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, X, Snap, Wikipedia, LinkedIn and Pinterest -- ask the companies to schedule briefings with him on “reconciling the DSA with America’s free speech tradition” and the role of EU officials in encouraging censorship. The briefings should also include information on the economic and technical feasibility of geofencing -- separating online platforms into two, with one consistent with EU law and the other “for free speech,” Carr said. The DSA “is positioned to thwart efforts by U.S. tech companies to preserve and respect First Amendment principles on their platforms,” the letters said. They highlighted DSA rules against hate speech, blasphemy, insults and speaking ill of the dead, and an impending rule that requires companies to follow the EU’s rules against disinformation. Carr said the DSA could force U.S. companies to alter their content moderation policies to meet EU standards, which would take them away from fostering free speech. The letters give companies until Monday to respond.

NCTA President Michael Powell is retiring by year-end, the cable industry group said Thursday. He has held the position since spring 2011. Powell, 61, spent a term as FCC commissioner, starting in November 1997, and then served as chairman from 2001 through March 2005. Powell's "strategic insight and commitment have shaped the cable industry’s most significant achievements, and his leadership will be greatly missed," NCTA board Chairman and Cox Communications President Mark Greatrex said. NCTA said it would begin a national search for a successor. Powell "will have a lasting legacy in our industry," ACA Connects President Grant Spellmeyer wrote on X. "Thankful for his many years of service to this country and his kind mentorship to me!"