Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., and 31 other caucus members urged President Joe Biden Wednesday to nominate “a qualified Latino” to the vacant fifth FCC seat after Gigi Sohn’s recent withdrawal from consideration as nominee (see 2303070082). CHC members didn’t mention any preferred candidates, despite communications sector lobbyists’ chatter that former acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez, ex-Wiley, and National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts President Felix Sanchez were under consideration for an endorsement (see 2303130001). CHC member and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-Calif., told us he plans to recommend some potential contenders to the White House amid thus-far unfulfilled hopes the Biden administration will pivot quickly to name a candidate to replace Sohn.

The “jury’s still out” on whether the FCC’s 3.45 GHz auction was a success, said John Hunter, T-Mobile senior director-technology and engineering policy, during an FCBA wireless lunch Wednesday. Speakers welcomed the administration’s early steps on a national spectrum strategy (see 2303200044).

FCC action on Newsmax's January blackout on DirecTV (see 2301250042) is unlikely, though it generated a brief burst of complaints filed with the FCC plus House GOP lawmaker ire, media industry officials said in interviews. There also have been almost no signals a congressional hearing is likely in the near future, lawmakers and media observers told us. Newsmax and DirecTV didn't comment.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., pressed the FCC Thursday for a detailed accounting of its distribution of money to four broadband programs enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and COVID-19 aid measures. Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., meanwhile, led refiling of the Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable (Fair) Contributions Act.

Inmate calling services providers and consumer advocacy organizations welcomed a draft NPRM and order the FCC will consider during the commissioners' open meeting Thursday that would begin implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. Advocates sought some clarifying language in the final item, and ICS providers sought additional language in the draft on how the agency should establish just and reasonable rates.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., pressed the FCC in a letter we obtained ahead of its planned sending Thursday morning for a detailed accounting of its distribution of money to four broadband programs enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and COVID-19 aid measures. Thune in December began his own review of all federal broadband programs’ oversight of funding disbursals. Cruz has joined Thune in raising concerns about some of these programs since taking over as lead Commerce Republican in January.

FCC commissioners are expected to approve a robotexting order and Further NPRM, scheduled for a vote Thursday, though with a few tweaks addressing issues raised by CTIA and others, FCC and industry officials said. Commissioners OK'd a second wireless item, incorporating into agency rules four new and updated standards for equipment testing. That item, which was deleted from the agenda for the meeting, hasn’t been controversial.

A Friday House Communications Subcommittee hearing intended to jump-start negotiations on a comprehensive spectrum legislative package touched on some of those policy issues, but subpanel members used it as a bully pulpit to blast the Senate for failing to prevent the FCC’s frequency auction authority from expiring Thursday, as expected (see 2303090074). The House gaveled out Friday for a recess scheduled to end March 22. Senate leaders and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who disagreed about dueling bills to renew the commission’s mandate (see 2303080081), expect to return to negotiations this week.

The FCC’s administrative law judge isn’t obligated to resolve the Standard/Tegna transaction’s proceeding (see 2303070081) before the deal’s May 22 breakup date, and the broadcasters haven’t shown the case should be kicked back to the full FCC, said response filings posted Friday in docket 22-162 from the FCC Enforcement Bureau and two sectors of the Communications Workers of America. “The Media Bureau afforded the Applicants extra time and extra opportunity to establish that they were entitled to relief,” said the joint filing from the CWA's NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians. It isn’t the unions’ “or the Media Bureau’s fault that the Applicants’ sales agreement is about to expire,” the filing said. “This is entirely the parties’ doing.”

Eugene, Ore., Mayor Lucy Vinis (D) and Springfield, Ore., Mayor Sean VanGordon (R) and other city officials spoke with staff for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about RF safety and other issues. “Local governments often face questions and requests for action” on RF “from their residents, and given that the Communications Act assigns primary responsibility in this area to the Commission, we believe the Commission should shoulder more of the burden of explaining its rules to the public and also informing the public they should look to the Commission and Congress if they are unhappy with the Commission’s rules or with federal preemption of local authority to regulate RF emissions,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-226. They also discussed the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and “expressed concern about the program’s forthcoming funding cliff,” the filing said.