Senate Republicans filed their new COVID-19 aid bill Tuesday, the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act, with more than $70 billion in Department of Education funding that can be used for schools to pay for remote learning. The measure doesn’t include specific broadband funding. The House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HR-6800) included connectivity money (see 2005130059). The new bill also doesn’t have other tech and telecom provisions Senate Republicans put in a late July aid proposal (see 2007280059), including funding to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed for cloture on the measure and said a final floor vote could happen this week. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the bill as Republicans’ bid to “’check the box’” and “maintain the appearance that they’re not held hostage by their extreme right-wing that doesn’t want to spend a nickel to help people.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged members of Congress to “appropriate timely and temporary funding in a technologically-neutral manner outside the existing E-Rate and other Universal Service Fund programs” for remote learning during the pandemic.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in-person oral arguments remain suspended, to be conducted by audio or video conferencing, while an audio feed is livestreamed on the court's YouTube channel, the D.C. Circuit ordered Friday.

Broadcom expects to start "benefiting from the transition to 5G" soon, and new smartphone "product ramps later this year,” said CEO Hock Tan on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday. Wireless revenue in Q3 ended Aug. 2 was down 4% sequentially. Broadcom is a big iPhone supplier. Apple didn’t comment Friday. Broadcom Q4 revenue year on year will be “roughly flat” due to fewer parts shipments “relative to last year,” Tan said. Of the factories that were running under capacity after they emerged from lockdown, “most of that has been resolved,” he said. “Supply chain constraint on wafers and substrates continues.” So “our lead times are still very extended, based on the technology nodes and the particular products that we produce and sell,” Tan said. “Given the kinds of products we do, we see some of the constraint, and I’ll be direct. We could have shipped more in Q3 if such constraints were not as tight.”

The FCC intends to offer assistance in paying 2020 regulatory feeds "to regulatees experiencing financial hardship” due to the pandemic, said a public notice Friday. That will include streamlined processes for requesting waivers, deferments and installment payments, but the agency can’t waive or reduce the payments for whole categories of licensees, the PN said. “The Commission must collect $339,000,000 in FY 2020 regulatory fees and it must fairly and proportionately allocate the burden of those fees among regulatees.” FY 2020 regulatory fees must be paid in full by Sept. 25, and requests for waivers, installment plans and deferrals are due then, the PN said. “Fee relief may be granted, but only to those regulatees ‘unambiguously articulating extraordinary circumstances’ outweighing the public interest in recouping the cost of the Commission’s regulatory services.” Industry-specific guidance on who owes and how to pay them can be found on the FCC’s website, said a second PN on payment procedures.

Resy canvassed New York City subscribers Thursday on their comfort level about returning to indoor dining. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) continues banning that in the city even as he allows it at 50% capacity in the rest of the state. The dining reservations app asked users to choose how soon they would return to indoor dining once it’s reinstated -- immediately, in a few weeks, a few months, or not until a vaccine is available.

More than a third of U.S. employers don't know when they will reopen workplaces, reported the Conference Board Thursday. It canvassed 1,100 corporate leaders in 20 municipalities Aug. 19-26, finding about 60% polled their workers about comfort in returning. “Despite talk of a looming vaccine” for COVID-19, 5% of respondents said wide availability “would be a significant factor in the timing of a return." Most companies have protocols for staff arriving at work, with 67% requiring screening, testing or temperature checks.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Senate GOP leaders’ expected rollout next week of an approximately $500 billion COVID-19 aid bill, writing Democratic colleagues that “Republicans may call their proposal ‘skinny,’ but it would be more appropriate to call it ‘emaciated.’” Proposals the Senate GOP floated in late July included funding to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998) and some other telecom and tech provisions but no broadband money (see 2007280059). Some believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional aid bill including broadband means the issue could become a focus during fall election campaigns (see 2008210001). The expected revised GOP proposal “appears to be completely inadequate,” Schumer said. “I was hopeful … we could make progress in our negotiations with the White House,” which remain stalled (see 2008270051). “Republicans are trying to ‘check the box’ and give the appearance of action,” Schumer said. “I don’t know if there will be another package in the next few weeks or not,” McConnell said during an event at a Kentucky hospital: Chances of bipartisan agreement have “descended” as the election approaches.

The FCC Wireline Bureau said Thursday it’s extending its gift rules waiver to the Rural Health Care and E-rate programs by three months, to Dec. 31. The original waiver cut-off date was Sept. 30 (see 2003180054). The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Consortium for School Networking and State Educational Technology Directors Association sought an extension through June 30, citing the pandemic (see 2008050052). “We find good cause to extend” the waiver because of “the ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19 to program participants and the continued need for robust connectivity,” the bureau ordered. It waived “the RHC deadline for responding to” Universal Service Administrative Com. information requests through Dec. 31. It directed USAC “provide a 30-day extension to E-Rate program participants impacted by the pandemic that request an extension to respond to certain USAC information requests, including those related to Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) requests, issued through December 31.”

Not all retailers got a quarterly sales assist from the pandemic, even as they shift online where shoppers are spending more money. Conn’s reported sales fell 8.6% to $279.7 million from the year-ago period. Same-store sales dropped 13.2% for the quarter ended July 31. Chief Operating Officer Lee Wright on a Thursday investor call said sales could be affected through the fiscal year. CEO Norm Miller said there are opportunities geographically and with different customer segments to “take appropriate risk for the back half of the year,” but the company is being “quite cautious as we go forward, with unemployment still at double digits and unknown what’s going to happen, having obviously never been through a pandemic.” There wasn't Q3 guidance. Shares closed down 16% to $11.52. Conn’s had a deceleration after stimulus from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act waned at the end of July, said Wright. Consumer electronics sales fell 11.7%. In response to what it sees as lasting changes in buying habits, Conn’s is accelerating digital investment. It launched an e-commerce platform last year and upgraded its website, resulting in 72% e-commerce growth in the quarter. Online was 2%-3% of the balance of sale in Conn’s credit portfolio in Q2, up 70%. It can ultimately be 10%, said Miller.

COVID-19 will be a boon for cyber insurance providers because organizations that speed their digital transformation will become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, reported S&P Global Ratings Wednesday. Though the yearly economic costs of cybercrime already exceed $700 billion, “insured cyber losses are still very small at below $5 billion," it said. "This indicates the untapped potential of the cyber insurance market." S&P expects the cyber insurance market to increase 20%-30% a year on average, with small and midsize enterprises “a key avenue for growth.”