The most important thing the FCC can do to improve the lives of the deaf and hard of hearing is “make sure our country has world-leading wired and wireless networks, and that everyone, everywhere is connected,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in remarks at the National Association of the Deaf Conference in Chicago July 3. “Beyond that, we need to mobilize the expertise of people with disabilities to develop and deploy new technologies,” she said, pointing to the agency’s Disability Advisory Committee and Disability Rights Office as examples. She touted the FCC’s recent initiatives to improve accessibility for emergency alerting and the upcoming meeting item on caption display setting accessibility (see 2406270068). Rosenworcel also discussed recent advances in mass market products that increase accessibility, such as a virtual reality headset that uses AI to generate real-time captions. These services are available not "because of some specialty assistive device designed and marketed exclusively to people who are deaf or blind,” she said, but because of applications that “run on devices that were made for everyone.” Rosenworcel said making new technology “built for all” is good for business. “We can make the digital future work for all of us -- the deaf and hard-of-hearing included.” The agency released her speech Monday.

Former President Donald Trump denounced the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 -- some of which FCC Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington wrote -- in a post on Truth Social Friday. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” Carr is listed as principal author of the FCC chapter in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, the book outlining Project 2025’s 180-day plan for a second Trump administration. Simington is credited as a contributor. Neither Simington nor Carr commented.

The FCC Wireline Bureau gave carriers part of the relief they sought on rules addressing SIM swapping and port-out fraud, delaying Monday's compliance deadline. The reprieve, though, isn't as long as CTIA, NCTA and the Competitive Carriers Association wanted (see 2406270028). The bureau found that delay of the rules until March 10, as the groups asked, “would not serve the public interest,” a Friday order said. But the bureau said the requirement won’t kick in until OMB completes its review of the information collection requirements in the rules and the FCC publishes a notice in the Federal Register announcing the compliance date. “This will effectively result in a single synchronized timeframe,” the order said. The review is expected to be completed no earlier than November, the order said. The FCC “gave the industry a half a loaf, which is better than giving them the whole loaf,” Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, told us. Saunders said “it’s too bad” the requirements aren’t already in place. “SIM swap and port out frauds cause devastating losses to consumers, especially to low-income consumers who are using prepaid phones, which are more vulnerable,” she said: Consumers often don’t “have the means to launch expensive litigation to recoup their funds. The new regulations impose relatively modest requirements -- which do not seem to be overly complex, or need radical new systems to be developed.” The commission "is not unaware of the complexities of implementing the requirements,” but “we do not find the complexities outlined by Petitioners persuasive to overcome the Commission’s stated concerns regarding the urgency of addressing these types of pernicious fraudulent schemes,” the order said.

Following court directions, the FCC filed at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday “a certified list of items constituting the record of Commission proceedings” related to the net neutrality order in docket 24-7000. The 6th Circuit last week declined to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit as the FCC requested (see 2406280060). The list runs more than 1,100 pages and includes comments filed starting in 2020.

Recent U. S. Supreme Court decisions on judicial deference to federal agencies and agency enforcement actions will have “significant impacts” on FCC matters, but “how they apply may vary significantly by context,” according to a Monday post from HWG attorneys Christopher Wright, Sean Lev and Jason Neal. Wright and Lev are former FCC general counsels. “Many FCC actions are based on statutory provisions that are at least arguably ambiguous, and litigants affected by those decisions will in some cases have a greater chance to prevail in federal court,” in light of the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision (see 2407010036), the attorneys said. However, many of the rules that Congress directed the FCC to implement use terms like “appropriate” or “reasonable," they noted. “The meaning of the Court’s reasoning regarding those instances where Congress clearly has authorized some amount of discretion will be important (and surely contested),” they said. While SCOTUS ruled previous decisions that relied on Chevron deference remain in effect, that's also likely to get tested in the courts, they wrote. In its decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (see 2406270063), the court didn’t specify what opportunities for a jury trial satisfy the Seventh Amendment. Although FCC enforcement proceedings haven’t generally involved juries, even before Jarkesy an entity facing an FCC forfeiture could decline to pay, and eventually face a civil suit from DOJ to collect the unpaid money, a proceeding called a “trial de novo.” The FCC has previously contended that this opportunity satisfies any 7th Amendment requirements, the attorneys said.

In an update to Congress on its rip-and-replace program, the FCC said as of June 1, it has received 23,830 reimbursement claims across 122 of the 126 applications approved for a funding allocation to replace Huawei and ZTE communications gear and services. It also approved more than $693 million in claims “for which funds have been fully disbursed to recipients or are in the process of being disbursed through the U.S. Treasury.” The FCC noted a May 2 letter from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to Congress urging full funding, which would close the program's shortfall of more than $3 billion (see 240502007). The Wireline Bureau “has continued to review Reimbursement Claims submitted by recipients and disburse funds within the approved funding allocations for costs reasonably incurred to remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services,” the report said in Tuesday’s Daily Digest: “We have also received and reviewed the sixth and seventh rounds of status updates submitted by Reimbursement Program recipients.” The FCC estimated that 12% of participants have completed the program. Complaints from participants include “(1) absence of full funding; (2) supply chain delays; (3) labor shortages; (4) weather-related challenges; and (5) extended review times in the processing of requests for reimbursement,” the report said. Providers continue seeking additional time to complete the program. This week, Hotwire Communications became the latest to seek an extension, citing delays in obtaining replacement equipment, labor shortages and funding “uncertainties.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued another decision concerning regulatory law, Corner Post v. Board of Governors, which is expected to also add to the number of challenges against regulatory agencies filed in court. But the effect for the FCC is expected to be zero, unlike last week’s decision in cases challenging the Chevron doctrine (see 2406280043), because the Communications Act, not the six-year statute of limitations in the Administrative Procedure Act, governs appeals of FCC decisions. In Corner Post, SCOTUS, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, revived a North Dakota convenience store's challenge of a Federal Reserve regulation covering debit card "swipe fees." Businesses pay banks these fees when customers use debit cards to make purchases. Corner Post argued that it shouldn’t be bound by the six-year statute of limitations to challenge a 2011 regulation because it opened for business in 2018. SCOTUS held that an APA claim doesn’t accrue for purposes of the six-year statute of limitations “until the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.” The administration, representing the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, had argued that adopting Corner Post's legal position "would substantially expand the class of potential challengers" to government regulations and "increase the burdens on agencies and courts." Industry lawyers noted that under Section 402(a) of the Communications Act, petitions for review of FCC orders, except those involving licenses, must be filed within 60 days. The deadline for appealing license decisions in Section 402(b) is 30 days. The APA deadline has never applied, lawyers said.

ISP groups will voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit against Vermont’s net neutrality law, a Friday notice at the U.S. District Court of Vermont said. The groups are ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom and the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association (case 2:18-cv-00167-CR). Vermont’s law seemed in good shape following significant, late-April decisions by the FCC and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2405030057).

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated a draft order that would require emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert participants to create and implement cybersecurity plans and broadcasters and cable companies to notify the FCC of EAS equipment defects within 24 hours of discovery. The draft rules would also require that EAS participants have contingency plans for delivering alerts. The order stems from an October 2022 NPRM on cybersecurity proposals for WEA and EAS, which drew industry criticisms that new cybersecurity rules would be overly burdensome and duplicative (see 2310300057). The draft order is “informed by stakeholder input” and “would reduce risks to communications networks, in keeping with a whole-of-government effort to establish cybersecurity requirements to support national security and public safety,” a release said. The item follows a recent trend at the agency of circulating controversial items without attaching them to open meeting agendas, thus keeping the draft version from being publicly released (see 2404010062).

The 2026 ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF) will have a sizable agenda and likely serve as an important precursor to the ITU's 2026 Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-26), held later that year, Access Partnership blogged Friday. The WTPF agenda includes space connectivity and telecommunications/information and communications technology resilience, it said. WTPF opinions could portend potential compromises on contentious issues at PP-26, it said.