Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., filed cloture Tuesday on a motion to proceed on the House-passed minibus FY26 package (HR-6938), which would increase NTIA’s annual funding to $50 million (see 2601080070). Thune's cloture filing set up further Senate votes on the measure for later this week. The upper chamber voted 80-13 Monday night to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed.
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy confirmed to us Monday that he will be among the witnesses at an expected Senate Commerce Committee hearing later this month examining the FCC’s national TV station audience reach cap. Ruddy has vocally opposed proposals for the FCC to eliminate or ease the 39% cap (see 2512150046).
Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees released a compromise FY 2026 minibus spending package (HR-7006) on Sunday night that would mirror President Donald Trump’s request to increase the FCC’s annual funding but decrease the FTC’s allocation (see 2506020056). Meanwhile, the Senate planned to vote Monday night on the motion to invoke cloture on the House-passed minibus FY26 package (HR-6938), which would increase NTIA’s annual funding to $50 million (see 2601080070).
House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday that he won't seek reelection this year. Hoyer, a former House majority leader, holds a key role in shaping FCC and FTC appropriations. He clashed with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during a hearing in May over how much the Wireline Bureau based its approval of Verizon’s $20 billion purchase of Frontier on the carrier agreeing to end its workforce equity programs (see 2505160050). House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., lamented Hoyer's planned departure and praised his work on the panel. Hoyer has been in the House since 1981.
Senior Senate Commerce Committee member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told reporters Tuesday that she’s “seriously considering” running for governor after incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced that he won’t seek reelection to a third term. Klobuchar has been active on rural broadband and other communications policy matters. She was among several Senate Commerce Democrats who criticized FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during a December hearing over his mid-September comments against ABC and parent Disney, which were widely perceived as causing the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air (see 2512170070).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and 15 other Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation urged NTIA on Friday to allow the state “to retain and use BEAD non-deployment funds for broadband adoption.” BEAD’s non-deployment funding, which some estimates have found to account for $20 billion of the program’s $42.5 billion total, has faced challenges from the Trump administration and some congressional Republicans. President Donald Trump earlier this month issued an executive order that directs NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment BEAD funding for states that the administration determines have overly burdensome AI laws (see 2512120048).
Nicole Gustafson, NAB's senior vice president of government relations, said during a podcast released Friday that she's “very optimistic” that the House will vote on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979) “early next year,” given recent evidence of momentum in the measure’s favor.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Senate Commerce Committee member Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., traded barbs Wednesday night and Thursday over their exchange at the panel’s commission oversight hearing (see 2512170070) about what the senator called inconsistent handling of news distortion complaints against media companies. Carr refused during the hearing to commit to Rosen’s request that he open “an investigation into Fox News” for editing a 2024 interview with now-President Donald Trump amid his election contest that showed only part of his answer to a question about whether he would release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and 13 other senators urged NTIA on Tuesday to “preserve states’ ability to use their non-deployment BEAD funds consistent with congressional intent” amid concerns that the Trump administration might seek to claw that money back. Some estimates have found that $20 billion of BEAD’s $42.5 billion in funding qualifies as non-deployment money. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order that directs NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment BEAD funding for states that the administration determines have overly burdensome AI laws (see 2512120048).
House Communications Subcommittee member Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., on Friday night hailed the FCC's publication in the Federal Register of the Public Safety Bureau's January multilingual wireless emergency alerts rules (see 2501080029). Attorneys general from 18 states and the city of New York threatened in November to pursue legal action to force the rules’ publication (see 2511070042). Barragan noted that she led a letter in May with more than two dozen other House Democrats pressing the FCC to publish the rules and begin implementing them.