Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson plans to emphasize at a Wednesday hearing that her office is “committed to oversight” of the $48 billion in broadband funding under NTIA’s administration from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Subpanel Republicans aim for the House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing to criticize what they view as excessive spending via IIJA and other measures (see 2303230077). Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., meanwhile, led refiling of the Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act in a bid to revamp USF's funding mechanism (see 2112220072). Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., led a House companion measure.
Gordon Moore, 95, Intel co-founder, died March 24 at his Hawaii home, announced the company and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He was 95. Cause of death wasn’t disclosed. In 1965, Moore predicted the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year, which became known as Moore’s Law. Three years after that prediction, he and colleague Robert Noyce established Intel. The two had worked under William Shockley, who co-invented the transistor and founded Shockley Semiconductor. Moore and Noyce later were among the co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor. At Intel, Moore held various executive positions, including CEO, chairman and chairman emeritus. He stepped down as emeritus in 2006. He and his wife formed the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2000. His survivors include his wife, Betty Irene Whitaker, two sons, Kenneth and Steven, and four grandchildren.
NTIA will release in “coming weeks” the first notice of funding for the $1.5 billion federal fund to spur the growth of open radio access networks, said Amanda Toman, new lead of NTIA’s Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund, Thursday at the Winnik Forum at Hogan Lovells. Under the Chips and Science Act, which created the fund, NTIA is required to make initial grants by Aug. 8, she noted.
Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and 13 other Senate Republicans urged the Commerce Department Wednesday to "reverse" what they view as "superfluous and partisan provisions" in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Feb. 28 notice of funding opportunity for $39 billion in incentives for U.S. semiconductor manufacturers allocated from the 2022 Chips and Science Act (see 2207280060). The NOFO called for “applications for projects for the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for the front- and back-end fabrication of leading-edge, current-generation, and mature-node semiconductors.” Many of the NOFO’s “grant criteria … will have the opposite effect of Congress’s intent” and “instead make domestic chip production more expensive, less competitive, and reliant on taxpayer subsidies over private investment,” said Cruz and the others in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The NOFO also includes “extraneous environmental-social-governance (ESG) requirements that seek to enact progressive policies that had been previously rejected by Congress. These policies include liberal wish list items, many of which were removed” from the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package enacted last year “because they did not have the votes to pass at even a simple majority in the Senate. To claim that these provisions are integral to the ‘national security mission’ of the CHIPS Act and will ‘[result] in lower costs’ defies reason.” The Republican senators sought the removal of provisions mandating on-site child care at covered facilities and encouraging grant recipients to use project labor agreements. They also faulted NOFO provisions they say embellish the definitions of what should satisfy some Chips and Science Act requirements aimed at hiring “economically disadvantaged individuals,” increasing community investment and prohibiting grantees from using award funding for dividend payments or stock buybacks. NIST didn’t comment.
Keeping American telecom networks secure and competitive with Chinese companies that receive substantial subsidiaries from the government is a top priority of the Biden administration, said Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging tech, at the Winnik Forum at Hogan Lovells Thursday. Neuberger said the administration is committed to promoting open radio access networks as a way of leveling the playing field with China.
Purdue University’s Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy names Janice DeGarmo, ex-State Department, chief operating officer … Sourcepass, IT services and cybersecurity company, names Trax Group’s Daman Wood, also ex-Vonage, chief operating officer ... Digital resilience platform Red Sift names NATO’s cybersecurity curriculum lead Sean Costigan director-cyber policy ... Roberts Communications Network appoints Jonathan Crawford, ex-The Spaceconnection, president of new Broadcast and Media Services Division.
Lawmakers are beginning to forward to the White House the names of preferred contenders to replace Gigi Sohn as President Joe Biden's nominee to be the FCC's third Democrat, after the ex-candidate’s Tuesday announcement that she had asked the White House to withdraw her from Senate consideration (see 2303070082). The names of several potential contenders were also circulating among communications sector lobbyists, but several officials told us there's no prohibitive favorite in the immediate aftermath of Sohn's withdrawal. The White House didn't comment on its plans. The administration hadn’t formally withdrawn Sohn Friday.
The White House withdrew Gigi Sohn’s FCC nomination from Senate consideration Tuesday at her request, ending what had become an often fractious year-plus confirmation process that involved President Joe Biden naming her three times (see 2301030026). Sohn’s announcement followed shortly after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced he'd be the first Senate Democrat to formally oppose her confirmation, but the former nominee and her supporters confirmed she reached her decision Monday. Sohn’s supporters grieved her withdrawal and strongly criticized her opponents inside and outside the communications sector for engaging in an unprecedented campaign of character assassination.
Hearst promotes Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb to Hearst executive vice president-chief operating officer, effective May 1, succeeding Mark Aldam, stepping down but remaining executive vice president to help with transition until Nov. 1, then executive at large and special adviser to the CEO; Michael Hayes, Hearst Television chief operating officer, succeeding Wertlieb as Hearst senior vice president and Hearst Television president …
An extension of the FCC's auction authority through May 19 isn't yet assured amid hopes for a slightly longer renewal to give lawmakers even more time to negotiate a broader spectrum legislative package, several senators said in interviews Monday and Tuesday. The House passed its bill to temporarily reauthorize the FCC's mandate (HR-1108) Monday on a voice vote. Lawmakers have been wary about the current March 9 expiration of the FCC's remit due to the slow pace of legislative talks since this Congress returned Jan. 3 (see 2302220063).