A June 2020 wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling merely clarified existing rules, the FCC told a federal appeals court Wednesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month resumed a long-paused case on a League of California Cities challenge to the FCC decision clarifying shot clock and substantial change rules (see 2302070041). The FCC said in a brief it made no procedural errors and reasonably interpreted its rules (case 20-71765).
Although the Biden administration took unprecedented action to shield solar panel importers from antidumping and countervailing duties -- after hearing from a third of the Senate's Democratic caucus and two Republicans that the anti-circumvention investigation was harming the solar installation industry -- the political pressure has not abated.
FCC nominee Gigi Sohn and most Senate Commerce Committee Democratic supporters strongly defended her record and decried what several called an extensive “smear campaign” against her during a Tuesday confirmation hearing, but comments from panel Democrat Jacky Rosen of Nevada about law enforcement groups’ vehement opposition to her candidacy threw her prospects into renewed doubt. All participating Commerce Republicans voiced strong opposition to Sohn Tuesday, as expected (see 2302130001), citing the same concerns as at the nominee’s previous two confirmation hearings and more recent matters that conservative media outlets raised since President Joe Biden renominated her in January. Republicans repeatedly tried to directly correlate her role as an Electronic Frontier Foundation board member and the group’s past actions, but avoided raising reports on EFF’s sex worker policy positions that her supporters claim were instances of veiled homophobia (see 2301310062).
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit denied Nimitz Technologies’ motion to stay issuing the mandate in its denial of Nimitz's petition for a rehearing of its mandamus appeal, pending the filing of a mandamus or cert petition at the Supreme Court to have the case heard on attorny-client privilege grounds (see 2302030030), said a clerk’s order signed Tuesday (docket 23-103). Barring SCOTUS involvement, the denial would send the case back to Chief U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly in Delaware.
The FCC should pause the 2022 quadrennial review until the 2018 QR is complete, and finish the 2018 by the end of Q1, said NAB in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 22-459. Requesting comments for the 2022 QR with the 2018 version unfinished violates the Telecommunications Act and appears to make the comments for both reviews unclear and useless since both reviews appear to concern the same ownership rules, NAB said. “How are stakeholders supposed to intelligibly comment for purposes of the 2022 quadrennial review on rules subject to change in a previous unfinished review?” asked the filing. “In the 2022 quadrennial, interested parties should be commenting on the ownership rules in light of the FCC’s final decisions in its 2018 review.” It seems possible “that NAB and other stakeholders expended significant time and resources to prepare multiple sets of comments, data, and studies in the 2018 proceeding for no real purpose.” Participating in QRs and submitting comments and data is “burdensome and expensive,” NAB said. The FCC “should take into account the evident lack of meaningful work on quadrennial reviews since 2018” as it considers broadcaster regulatory fees for 2023, the filing said. The FCC didn't comment.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A New Hampshire House committee Wednesday soundly defeated a bill to regulate social media. But in Kansas, state senators at another hearing the same day appeared largely supportive of a proposed bill that would restrict online platforms from editing or removing political speech. Many state legislators have floated measures to regulate or investigate social media this session while the Supreme Court considers whether to hear industry challenges to Texas and Florida laws from 2021 (see 2301230051).
Epic Games “unceremoniously copied” for its Fortnite franchise the most recognizable part of one of Kyle Hanagami’s most well-known registered choreographic works, and was rewarded with the district court’s dismissal of Hanagami’s complaint, said the choreographer’s opening brief in his 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court petition to reverse and remand the district court’s ruling.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., asked NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson Friday to “pause the disbursement” of money for its tribal broadband connectivity program (TBCP) until NTIA uses updated FCC broadband maps to “verify that all funds for applications submitted … will not be used to overbuild existing broadband service.” Thune also asked for a pause until NTIA addresses GAO’s call last week for the agency to institute better performance goals and measures for TBCP (see 2301240047) that can better “detect fraud” in the program. Thune and former Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., first raised concerns about TBCP in December (see 2212080051), soon after Thune began a bid for stronger oversight of all federal broadband programs. Davidson indicated in his response earlier this month to that initial query that NTIA was still reviewing the broadband maps the FCC released in November (see 2211100072), but “I am concerned that if NTIA does not use” the updated data “to review all TBCP application currently pending, awarded and disbursed,” the agency “will once again waste billions of taxpayer dollars” by funding overbuilding of existing networks, Thune said in a letter to Davidson we obtained. The GAO’s report, meanwhile, said NTIA hasn't done a fraud risk assessment of the program and the agency hasn’t “designated an entity to oversee fraud risk management.” “This mismanagement of the TBCP by NTIA is deeply concerning” since the agency already disbursed more than $1.7 billion in funding through the program, Thune said. NTIA didn’t comment.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., and Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., introduced a resolution that would end the administration's pause on antidumping and countervailing duty collection for solar panel firms operating in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam that have been identified as circumventing AD/CV duties on Chinese solar panels. That was the finding of a preliminary determination published in December.