The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is reviewing a proposed FCC rule titled “Modernization of the Nation's Alerting Systems,” which could be related to NAB’s proposal to allow software-based emergency alerting equipment, according to the OIRA website and industry officials. Since April 21, all agency regulations have been required to undergo OIRA review, but it has been unclear how that process would interact with the FCC’s procedures (see 2505090004). The alerting item posted by OIRA doesn’t appear to correspond to any item listed as having been circulated to the FCC’s 10th floor as of Friday. The OIRA website listing contains almost no details about the item, only that it was submitted for review May 30, a few days after the final reply comment date on NAB’s proposal (see 2505230056). The FCC didn’t respond to queries about the OIRA listing. OIRA’s webpage shows that a number of FCC and NAB officials met about the item via teleconference June 13.
Former FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told broadcasters Thursday that Chairman Brendan Carr has chosen not to take steps to ease the ATSC 3.0 transition. Carr could have long ago had the agency issue guidance to speed the approval of ATSC 3.0 channel-sharing applications, even without a Republican majority, Simington said in a speech at the ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference.
Allowing broadcasters to replace physical emergency alerting equipment with a software-based system won’t require the FCC to create an entirely new regulatory regime, said NAB and broadcast executives in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-94. Emergency alert system (EAS) equipment maker Digital Alert Systems has said NAB’s proposal would raise a host of regulatory issues (see 2505230056), but NAB and executives from iHeart, Beasley and Capitol Broadcasting told the FCC that such concerns are “overblown,” the filing said.
The House Rules Committee was still considering Tuesday whether to allow floor votes on a pair of Democratic amendments to the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that would strip out its proposed clawback of $1.1 billion of CPB’s advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 (see 2506090036). Panel Republicans and Democrats sparred over CPB funding during the hearing, reflecting growing GOP interest in revoking federal support for public broadcasters over claims that their content has a predominantly pro-Democratic bias (see 2503210040). Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he's still undecided about supporting a CPB funding rollback once the upper chamber considers HR-4.
Conservative groups and the Consumer Technology Association argued in reply comments filed by Friday’s deadline that a mandatory transition to ATSC 3.0, as NAB proposed, would fly in the face of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s deregulatory agenda. In its own comments, NAB argued that a mandate is necessary for broadcast competition, saying it's no different from the DTV transition.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during a Senate hearing Wednesday that NTIA will issue a new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for its $42.5 billion BEAD program and will require all states to resubmit their applications. But the agency would still be able to dole out much of the money before year-end, he told the Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., expressed reservations about President Donald Trump’s proposal to claw back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding as part of a rescission package that congressional GOP leaders want expedited (see 2506030065).
Low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters said in FCC comments that their industry is dying, and ATSC 3.0 won’t be enough to save it. Those comments, in docket 25-168, were in response to HC2’s petition proposing LPTV stations be allowed to switch to 5G broadcast. NAB disagreed, saying 5G broadcast advocates haven’t done enough to show that it won’t cause unacceptable interference.
Federal budget-cutting could mean degraded quality and timeliness of emergency alerts during major storms and disasters, emergency response and weather experts tell us. A number of advocacy groups, from the Urban Institute to the Natural Resources Defense Council, have raised concerns about budget cuts for the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster response. Others say budgetary issues won't harm emergency alerting, and the system remains robust.
Members of the House this week asked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to send to the Federal Register for publication rules for new multilingual templates for wireless emergency alerts (WEA), which the Public Safety Bureau released in January (see 2501080029).
NPR and three public radio stations filed a lawsuit Tuesday that asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block a White House executive order cutting funding for NPR and PBS (see 2505020044).