The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision calling a $57 million FCC fine against AT&T unconstitutional (see 2504180021) means a lower risk going forward of the agency imposing fines and forfeitures against parties found violating agency rules, Venable communications lawyer Craig Gilley wrote Tuesday. He said agency Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington were already skeptical of enforcement actions that could result in the imposition of forfeitures. Gilley said the 5th Circuit decision also will further bolster arguments that the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision has wide application to all agency monetary punishments imposed without a jury trial, not just those imposed by the SEC -- a party in Jarkesy --- or the FCC. The 5th Circuit decision reinforces that federal agencies imposing fines or other monetary penalties have to give their targets access to a jury trial and an Article III decision-maker, such as a judge, he said.
Danielle Thumann, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, indicated on Tuesday that the commission is looking closely at changing its rules for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a step sought by CTIA (see 2503270059), as well as cutting regulations approved during the last administration. NEPA was the first issue Thumann raised while speaking at a Federalist Society 5G webinar.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington appoints conservative activist Gavin Wax as chief of staff and names Thomas Struble, who had been on detail from the FCC to the Senate Commerce Committee, as senior legal adviser.
Consumer and public interest groups raised concerns on the Edison Electric Institute's petition asking the FCC to clarify that utilities have “prior express consent” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to send “demand response calls and texts” to their customers (see 2503100047). Led by the National Consumer Law Center, the groups met with Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau staff, said a filing Friday in docket 02-278.
The FCC on Monday dismissed “as unnecessary” the remaining cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) early transition waivers and confirmed that all applicants “may now seek a C-V2X authorization under the new rules.” The agency adopted long-anticipated final rules for the band in November after years of issuing waivers (see 2411210054). The acting chiefs of the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology handed down the new order.
The FCC International Bureau on Monday sought comment on various proposals for U.S. positions approved by the commission’s World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee last week (see 2504150032). The bureau also sought comment on an NTIA recommendation on agenda item 1.8, another topic at the meeting, addressing additional spectrum allocations to the radiolocation service. Comments, which are due April 30 in docket 24-30, “will assist the Commission in its upcoming consultations with the U.S. Department of State and NTIA in the development of U.S. positions" for the next WRC in 2027.
Proponents of georouting text messages sent to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline are seemingly starting to coalesce around the use of federal information processing standards (FIPS) codes. That's according to docket 18-336 reply comments due Friday. The 988 call georouting order, which FCC commissioners approved in October, included an NPRM about text georouting (see 2410170026).
The Center for American Rights (CAR) has filed a news distortion complaint at the FCC against CBS, NBC and ABC over their coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador. CAR is the same entity behind the ongoing news distortion proceeding against CBS over a 60 Minutes interview. The complaint comes less than a week after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr posted a warning to NBC parent Comcast about its coverage of Garcia. “Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it,” Carr wrote Wednesday.
CTIA and other industry commenters urged the FCC to proceed with caution as it considers changes to wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) that were proposed in a February Further NPRM. Comments were due last week in dockets 15-94 and 15-91. The FNPRM proposed allowing more flexibility in sending out alerts using a “Public Safety Message” classification (see 2502270042).
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has kicked off a rulemaking to bring back Schedule F under a new name and reclassify some federal employees to make them easier to fire, according to a fact sheet issued Friday by the White House. The change will allow agencies to “swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles,” the fact sheet said. The National Treasury Employees Union -- which represents FCC staff -- didn’t comment Monday but filed a lawsuit in January over the executive order reviving Schedule F (see 2501220080).