President Donald Trump signed a host of executive orders Monday that could affect FCC policy going forward and have already led newly minted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to scrub the agency’s processes of references to diversity, equity and inclusion and scrap the FCC’s diversity committee. The executive orders include a pause on the TikTok divestiture rule, a freeze on new regulations, a return of the Schedule F rule making it easier to replace federal workers with political appointees, and policies requiring information sharing with the new Department of Government Efficiency. Another order issued Monday officially designated Carr as chairman.
The NAB-led multistakeholder ATSC 3.0 task force, The Future of TV Initiative (FOTI), released its final report Friday, but the document offers few actionable recommendations and shows little new agreement among stakeholders (see 2501090047). “The report will provide the FCC with a better understanding of stakeholders’ outstanding issues and concerns as it moves forward with the rulemakings necessary to complete the transition and will help focus the efforts of industry as they continue to deploy ATSC 3.0,” NAB said in a news release Friday.
Eight former FCC commissioners filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court last week urging the justices to overturn the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program. Meanwhile, likely Senate Communications Subcommittee leaders Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., meanwhile, led an amicus brief with 27 other House and Senate lawmakers defending the funding mechanism.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's final monthly meeting was largely a victory lap for the outgoing leader, with commission officials offering more than two hours of testimony Wednesday detailing accomplishments during her tenure. Also, Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized what she called an "apparent campaign to bring broadcasters and content platforms to heel" -- a seeming jab at Commissioner Brendan Carr's commitment to battle a "censorship cartel" (see 2411180059, 2412160052 and 2411080046).
Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth during his Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing appeared to lean against repurposing portions of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band with commercial wireless use, an issue that stalled negotiations during the last Congress on spectrum legislation and is likely to be a flashpoint this year (see Ref:2501070069]). Senate Armed Services member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was the only panel member who mentioned DOD’s spectrum priorities in the incoming Donald Trump administration during the hearing, which was at times rancorous and primarily focused on the nominee’s past behavior and statements.
California's top assemblymember on communications is concerned about the state's process for distributing broadband cash and what President-elect Donald Trump might do to its $1.86 billion federal BEAD allocation. In an exclusive Communications Daily Q&A ahead of Monday's opening of the new legislative session, Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said she expects she will resurrect her proposal that creates a single state broadband office. And the committee will try again on a digital discrimination bill that failed to pass in the last session. Our conversation below with Boerner was lightly edited for length and clarity.
The FCC released on Tuesday an order reallocating the 2360-2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for space launch operations (see 2412190044). Commissioners approved the order 5-0 Dec. 23, ahead of the Dec. 25 statutory deadline set in the Launch Communications Act, which was enacted in September (see 2409270060). The order also incorporates the band into the FCC’s Part 26 space launch regulatory framework, which includes space launch licensing and frequency coordination rules. “To protect critical federal and non-federal flight testing operations,” the FCC also incorporates into the Part 26 rules “certain technical rules” from the agency’s Part 87 rules covering aviation industry communications. “Throughout this proceeding, the Commission has recognized that reliable spectrum access for space launch operations, which includes transportation of cargo and people into space, orbital launches to place satellites into space, and suborbital launches, is crucial to ensuring that the United States remains a global leader in space and innovation,” the order said: “Today, by implementing the recent Congressional directive, we take further steps to ensure that commercial space launch companies have reliable access to the necessary radio spectrum to communicate with their launch and reentry vehicles.” The 2360-2395 MHz band comes atop the 2025-2110 and 2200-2290 MHz allocations for space launch activities commissioners approved in the fall (see 2309210055).
AT&T said Monday the FCC approved its proposal to to initially stop new sales and then discontinue residential local service in nine Oklahoma wire centers. The proposal was deemed granted Saturday after the agency didn’t take further action. The Communications Workers of America slammed the development.
NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said during a Thursday Broadband Breakfast event he intends to resign Jan. 20, declaring the day President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to office as the end of his leadership of the agency. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel plans on leaving the same day (see 2411210028). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and some other event participants predicted potential changes in NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program once Republicans have unified control of government upon Trump’s inauguration, but suggested it’s less clear how spectrum policymaking may change next year.
Judges appeared to differ Thursday as the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court heard an ISP petition to overturn the FCC’s controversial data breach notification rules, which commissioners approved 3-2 a year ago (see 2312220054). Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented (see 2312130019). In 2017, a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval rescinded similar regulations that were part of the commission's 2016 ISP privacy order (see 2312200001).