If the Supreme Court rules against the FCC in Prometheus IV or “punts” without making a clear decision, the agency will be left in a “morass” that could take another decade to address, said former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on a Federalist Society virtual panel Monday: “If that’s what the Supreme Court comes up with, we’re stuck.” The FCC majority pinned its hopes on SCOTUS from the beginning, and the agency went into the litigation “looking past the 3rd Circuit,” he said: “I didn’t much care what the 3rd Circuit’s opinion was.”
Native American tribes are seeking more cooperation from the FCC and other federal agencies to expand broadband access. With the new Biden administration, tribal leaders and advocacy groups said in recent interviews that they're optimistic for better intergovernmental coordination.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., will reintroduce her privacy legislation (see 1912060035) sometime this quarter, an aide told us Friday. Observers said in interviews that this is the best chance Congress has had in recent years to pass a comprehensive privacy bill, in light of President Joe Biden’s election and a Democratic House and Senate.
Judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit hammered the FCC Monday during oral argument on a case that RF safety advocates brought last summer (see 2007300056), seeking to force the agency to update 25-year-old exposure rules. In December 2019, commissioners approved 5-0 an order largely upholding the old rules, making few tweaks (see 1912040036). Judges questioned how the FCC could rely in large part on advice from the Food and Drug Administration.
Enforcement looks again to be central to the privacy debate in Washington state this year. Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) said in an interview she will soon introduce a bill with a private right of action, unlike in Sen. Reuven Carlyle’s measure that failed the past two years amid House objections that it lacked teeth. Carlyle (D) told us he now sees more openness for passing SB-5062, though the American Civil Liberties Union remains opposed. Different political dynamics in the House could factor into the bill's fate.
Ex-FCC commissioners and other government officials are leaving office with control of private social media accounts that were used in part in an official capacity and that swelled with followers from their time in office. There's a lack of consistent rules and standard practice around how government officials use social media, and ethics watchdogs and academics say clearer policies are needed.
Public safety officials hope the FCC will reverse course on the 4.9 GHz band, reallocated to the states in September (see 2009300050), they told a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance webinar Thursday. Speakers endorsed petitions by PSSA and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council asking the FCC to reverse the change. Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented, but experts said the outlook is uncertain due to the split 2-2 commission. FCC officials told us the order is one of a large number that will have to be addressed under new leadership.
Problematic FCC maps and a rush to meet a federal deadline to use coronavirus relief money factor into a dispute over Wyoming broadband support, said the different sides in interviews. Tongue River Communications said it could go out of business due to Wyoming subsidizing overbuilding by Visionary Communications. The state said it relied on the commission’s Form 477 data to find the area unserved and lacked time for challenges, with the Dec. 30 deadline in March's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act. “There’s blame all around, but it can be correctly done,” said former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
Business interests in the communications and tech universe that decried the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill violence (see 2101060057) and froze political action committee giving (see 2101110062) likely wouldn't have felt so compelled to do so a few years ago, crisis communications experts told us. They said it's increasingly a norm for businesses to speak up, even on issues in which they aren't directly involved. Agency officials like FCC commissioners aren't under similar pressures and express their opinions more out of personal convictions, said Texas A&M communications professor Timothy Coombs.
President Joe Biden named Jessica Rosenworcel as acting FCC chair Thursday (see 2101210053), and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as acting FTC chair (see 2101210048). The Commerce Department said Evelyn Remaley, head of NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development, will temporarily lead that agency.