Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Cable and telco executives said Congress should resolve the net neutrality dispute and end policy flip-flops that, one suggested, threaten broadband investment more than heavy regulation. "It's time to put the rules in place and move on," said Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. But the executives expressed more hope than optimism, with some pessimistic about the near-term prospects. Recent revelations and concerns about the use of Facebook data could drive privacy legislation discussions, some said. Others focused on 5G wireless and fiber deployment efforts.

The circulation of draft orders three weeks before meetings has apparently led to a big falloff in the number of ex parte visits to the FCC, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. O’Rielly spoke on a panel with fellow Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr. Both also said more than three months after the 3-2 FCC vote to overturn the 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1712140039) they remain convinced the FCC made the right move. Earlier, Chairman Ajit Pai and NTIA Administrator David Redl outlined various initiatives, including to promote 5G.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly drew renewed scrutiny Monday for their attendance at the American Conservative Union's February Conservative Political Action Conference, this time from House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa. Carr, O’Rielly and Pai spoke on a panel at CPAC about process and structural changes at the FCC made since the commission shifted to majority-Republican control last year (see 1802230037). The Project on Government Oversight cited O’Rielly’s comment calling for the re-election of President Donald Trump as a potential violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts government officials' partisan political activity (see 1802270035). On the advice of FCC lawyers (see 1803020033), Pai turned down the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award, which was awarded at CPAC for his role in and the hostile fallout from the rollback of the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. “Your willingness to attend and help promote a political rally raises serious concerns about your roles as leaders of an independent federal agency, and the potential of taxpayer dollars being spent towards political ends,” Pallone and Doyle said in a letter to the GOP commissioners. “The public should be able to expect that independent agencies” like the FCC “will carry out their responsibilities in a nonpartisan manner.” Since the FCC shifted to majority-GOP control, the commission “has become not only more partisan, but increasingly political,” the Democratic lawmakers said. “Commissioners seem to be using their positions during this administration as a platform to promote and even raise funds towards a political agenda.” Doyle and Pallone noted Pai’s decision to turn down the NRA award, but “we are nonetheless concerned about how an FCC Chair allowed himself to be put in a situation where such an ethically questionable award could be presented to him.” The lawmakers asked the commissioners to respond by April 16 to a series of questions about their decision to attend CPAC, including whether they sought advice from the FCC’s Office of General Counsel about “whether you could attend CPAC under the FCC’s or other relevant ethics rules” and whether they used FCC resources in any way to support their appearance at the event. The FCC didn’t comment, but a commission official noted “many government officials,” including Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon, spoke at CPAC.

States with laws or executive orders on net neutrality to counter the FCC’s December recision order should expect lawsuits, law experts and others said in interviews. Suits seem more likely to come from industry than the FCC, but industry may wait for the right moment, they said. In two states that passed net neutrality bills, ILEC associations said they won’t sue.

President Donald Trump signed the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) and other tech and telecom policy provisions included in the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625) Friday, despite a last-minute threat to veto the measure. The Senate passed the omnibus early Friday 65-32, after behind-the-scenes "begging, pleading and cajoling" to assuage objections from Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the floor.

The FCC took USF actions and made proposals intended to help rural telcos provide broadband-oriented service and to improve high-cost subsidy program operations. Dissenting Democrats said their requests for changes to an NPRM went unheeded. Chairman Ajit Pai said the minority members waited too long to make their suggestions, a charge they denied. The commission Friday released two orders and a notice (here) that provide up to $545 million in additional support to rate-of-return carriers, flesh out expense and investment cost-recovery restrictions, and aim to examine the rural USF budget and a possible tribal broadband factor. The item appears largely consistent with a draft (see 1801160040 and 1801170048).

Trump administration officials' repeated citations of the national security implications of maintaining U.S. leadership in 5G innovation are a sign Congress needs to act on broader telecom policy issues that would help sustain that dominance, lawmakers and industry officials told us. The administration mentioned 5G deployment in its December national security strategy (see 1712180071 and 1712270032).

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Wednesday urged the FCC to postpone a vote on wireless infrastructure rules, slated for Thursday. The draft order, developed by Commissioner Brendan Carr, faced criticism from tribal groups concerned about the consultation process and groups representing local governments. With snow still falling in Washington on Wednesday, the FCC said the meeting is to start at 9:30 a.m., unless the Office of Personnel Management delays the opening of the federal government, in which case it will start at 11:30 a.m.

The digital divide is the FCC's “top policy priority” and the Connect America Fund reverse auction is “a milestone” in modernizing a key USF program, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told an American Cable Association conference Wednesday. Pai slammed Title II Communications Act regulation of broadband service, which he said was the result of “Silicon Valley giants” claiming small ISPs such as ACA's members “posed a greater threat to a free and open internet” than Google, Facebook and Twitter.

With a lack of electricity and access to funding hampering recovery efforts for communications services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, some concerns about the FCC USF-based aid proposal have emerged, industry and government officials in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington told us. Some industry officials expressed concern about the proposal's goals and said the plan does nothing for affected broadcasters. A group of Puerto Rico broadcasters pitched a nationwide disaster relief plan for broadcasters to Chairman Ajit Pai during his visit earlier this month. “What happened in Puerto Rico can happen elsewhere in the U.S.,” said Eduardo Rivero of Puerto Rico station owner Media Power Group.