Intelsat hires Anthony O’Brien, ex-Raytheon, as chief financial officer, reassigns Chief Services Officer Michael DeMarco as chief commercial officer, taps Clay McConnell from Delta Air Lines as senior vice president-corporate communications and marketing, and adds Jeff Sare from Panasonic Avionics as president-Commercial Aviation division ... Smith Micro taps Von Cameron from Practics Business Solutions as chief revenue officer ... Cloud network provider Fastly announces Joshua Bixby will step down as CEO and from the board when a successor is appointed.
The Senate voted 78-17 Wednesday to reject a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to eliminate $10 billion for NASA’s lunar exploration program, Artemis, from Congress’ China package (see 2204010045). The Senate did a series of votes on nonbinding motions to instruct conferees as the two chambers move to conference on the China package. Sanders is seeking to cut funding that might go to Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos (see 2203290018). The Senate cleared by voice vote two motions -- from Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. -- aimed at maintaining language to strengthen U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. HR-4521 and S-1260 both include $52 billion in subsidies to encourage U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing (see 2201260062). The chamber also approved by voice language from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., seeking inclusion of a provision directing the White House Office of Management and Budget to "develop guidance for executive agencies requiring adequate security measures for any transfer, storage or use of digital yuan," China's currency, "on information technology."
The Senate was still voting Wednesday afternoon on 28 motions to instruct a conference committee charged with marrying elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), including two aimed at maintaining language aimed at strengthening U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. HR-4521 and S-1260 both include $52 billion in subsidies to encourage U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing (see 2201260062). The Senate approved by voice vote a motion from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to instruct conferees to "insist" a final measure bar federal funds from being "used for gain-of-function research conducted in China." Other motions up for votes later Wednesday included one from Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to insist the final bill "include incentives to support investments" in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, including "investments in the fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging" and R&D of chips. A motion from Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., aims for the bill to "strengthen" supply chain resilience and security, including provisions that "reinvigorate" U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Language from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., seeks inclusion of a provision directing the White House Office of Management and Budget to "develop guidance for executive agencies requiring adequate security measures for any transfer, storage or use of digital yuan," China's currency, "on information technology."
The U.S. federal spectrum governance system needs revamping, GPS advocates were told at Wednesday's Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. Bradford Parkinson, board vice chairman and frequent critic of the FCC's Ligado approval (see 1801170028), said interference testing shows the company's planned L-band terrestrial rollout will cause harmful GPS interference and the board needs to urge the FCC to swap out Ligado's spectrum or "just say no" to Ligado's deployment plans. The agency didn't comment.
ACA Connects announces CEO Matt Polka stepping down in July ... Benton Institute for Broadband & Society appoints Revati Prasad, ex-Institute for Local Self-Reliance, director-research and fellowships… NAB announces Alex Siciliano, ex-The Petrizzo Group, as senior communications strategist, new position … IHeartMedia hires Sarah van Mosel from SiriusXM's Stitcher as executive vice president-iHeart Audience Network ... Boingo Wireless taps Tanya Lynch from Mouser Electronics as vice president-human resources ... Chinese social e-commerce platform Yunji promotes Peng Zhang to vice president-finance to replace Chengqi Zhang, resigning for personal reasons, both effective Friday.
The Health and Human Services Department asked the FCC to clarify whether certain automated, prerecorded calls and text messages are allowed under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. "We anticipate that no more than six to eight individual messages will be sent to any individual enrollee through some combination of text messages and automated, pre-recorded calls," said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, in a letter posted Friday in docket 02-278. The calls and texts would end "approximately 18 months after the end of the public health emergency."
COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and the war in Ukraine demonstrate “that the world needs more resilient and more geographically balanced semiconductor manufacturing,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q1 ended April 2. The chip shortage cost the U.S. economy $240 billion last year, “and we expect the industry will continue to see challenges until at least 2024 in areas like foundry capacity and tool availability,” he said.
Top U.S.-based Huawei executives said Friday that they're hopeful the Biden administration will be open to revisiting sanctions against the company, in a virtual briefing for reporters.
The Senate voted 67-27 Thursday to formally begin conference talks aimed at marrying elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo again pressed lawmakers during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing to move forward on talks to produce a compromise innovation measure, citing the need to bolster the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry (see 2204270065). Both measures include $52 billion in subsidies to encourage U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing (see 2201260062) but differ in other areas.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and some Senate Commerce Committee members used a Wednesday hearing on the Commerce Department's FY 2023 budget goals (see 2204210059) as a platform to press Congress to quickly reach agreement marrying elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Committee members also pressed Raimondo on NTIA’s plans for distributing $48 billion in broadband money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and how to improve interagency spectrum coordination.