TechFreedom urged the FCC not to use an “obscure provision” on digital discrimination, buried deep in the “enormous” Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to “smuggle onerous common-carrier regulations” onto the internet. TechFreedom’s position was detailed as part of an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Policymakers, industry officials and broadband experts emphasized the demand for additional rural broadband deployment and affordability programs during an NTCA policy conference Wednesday in Washington. With uncertainty looming around the FCC's affordable connectivity program, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks urged Congress to replenish the program and keep rural communities connected (see 2405010055).

The term smart city can be useful for policymakers as they discuss using advanced communications and other tools to move cities forward, Bill Maguire, founder of Connected Communities, said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Smart cities aren’t a destination, but a process, he said. Maguire believes individual cities must define smart city for themselves and act accordingly.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday she's talking to a range of lawmakers seeking potential changes to an amended version of her draft Spectrum and National Security Act after the panel pulled Cantwell’s bill and 12 others from a planned Wednesday markup session Tuesday night (see 2404300072). The potential for the spectrum bill to make it into the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act “got precluded weeks ago,” Cantwell told reporters. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935). Lawmakers are still eyeing other vehicles for allocating stopgap money to keep the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program running through the remainder of the year. Those proposals include a bid from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that would attach an amendment to the FAA package appropriating ACP $7 billion (see 2405010055).

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a lead GOP co-sponsor of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), confirmed Wednesday he will push hard for an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep the ailing FCC broadband program running through the end of the fiscal year. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935).

Pennsylvania lawmakers should reject a plan deregulating incumbent local exchange carriers, the state’s Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero said Tuesday. Yet with two 7-4 party-line votes, majority Republicans on the Senate Communications Committee advanced a deregulation bill (SB-85) with an amendment that says the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission lacks VoIP and broadband authority. The Democratic minority -- which controls the governor’s office and has a slim House majority -- raised concerns that the bill would harm consumers.

Developing rules for opening the lower 3 GHz band, a top focus of U.S. carriers (see 2404080063), won’t be easy, Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame and former FCC chief technologist, said during an RCR Wireless virtual test and management forum Tuesday. Much discussion at the forum centered on the challenges of performance testing in evolving 5G networks.

The Biden administration could impede U.S. competitiveness if it codifies new cloud service regulations that force the tech industry to monitor and share data about foreign customers with the government, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM told the Commerce Department in comments due Monday. Telecom associations worried that definitions for cloud service companies might be too broad.

The Senate Commerce Committee will likely advance an amended version of the draft Spectrum and National Security Act during a Wednesday executive session with unanimous support from the panel’s 14 Democratic members, but lobbyists will watch closely how many Republicans don’t openly object to the measure as a means of determining its viability. The spectrum bill, led by Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction mandate through Sept. 30, 2029. The measure proposes using future license sales revenue to repay a proposed loan to the commission to fund the affordable connectivity program in FY 2024 and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2404250061).

House Innovation Subcommittee members appeared overwhelmingly supportive of a revised draft version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act during a Tuesday hearing, though some expressed reservations about imposing a mandate on automakers. The revised draft and earlier version HR-3413/S-1669 would require DOT to mandate AM radio's inclusion in future electric vehicles. S-1669 lead sponsors earlier that day announced a filibuster-proof Senate majority formally back the measure.