Many FCC staffers are “unsure what the future may bring,” with the agency's upcoming transition to a new Trump administration, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Dec. 15 at the close of the final commissioners' meeting during the Obama administration (see 1612150034). The sentiments were echoed in recent interviews with an official at the agency's union and current and former commission officials. Separately, former FCC employees from the last Republican administration under then-Chairman Kevin Martin are being interviewed for jobs at the agency by the Trump transition team, said a commission official.
The FCC signed a lease for its new headquarters at Sentinel Square III at 45 L St. NE, a commission spokesman told us Tuesday. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied last week a motion for special relief and a temporary restraining order filed by the FCC's current landlord Republic Properties affiliate Parcel 49C that would have prevented the General Services Administration from awarding the bid, according to court documents. No specific timeline for the move is available, the spokesman told us, though the FCC's lease on the current Portals building expires in October.
A petition proposing relaxing equal employment opportunity rules to allow broadcasters to satisfy EEO requirements with online job postings is likely to find favor in the upcoming FCC but could face public interest pushback, several broadcast attorneys told us. Filed last week by Sun Valley Radio and Canyon Media Corp. and put out for comment Friday, the petition says the internet is now the primary means of searching for job postings and rules that don't recognize that are outdated. “The daily newspaper, previously cited by the FCC as the presumptive way to reach all groups within a community, now pales in its reach within the community compared to the Internet,” said the petition. Comments are due Jan. 30 (see 1612150073), putting any potential NPRM well into the next administration.
The FCC Wednesday pulled a draft emergency alert system order from the next day's commissioners' meeting agenda, after industry and agency officials said it was controversial. Five other agenda items also were pulled, though four were adopted on circulation.
The current average price per MHz pop in the incentive auction below the threshold needed to trigger the final stage rule won't lead to a failed auction, attorneys following the process said in interviews Monday. It may mean the auction is less likely to close in the current Stage 4 (see 1612050062) than is commonly thought, they said. To trigger the final stage rule, the average auction price this stage must reach $1.25 per MHz POP for the most valuable spectrum. When the reverse auction starts Tuesday (see 1612090028), the price will be a fraction under $1.22 per MHz pop, said the public notice announcing Stage 4.
Incoming President Donald Trump's FCC isn't seen as more likely to pursue broadcast indecency enforcement than past commissions, and cleaning up TV content isn't seen as a high priority for the incoming administration, anti-indecency consumer groups and industry lawyers told us. The president-elect likely gives little thought to broadcast indecency, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter and Patrick Trueman, president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly Morality in Media). “What matters is where it is on the chairman's agenda,” said Trueman. “We'll see who's going to head the commission.”
The incentive auction's slipping into latter stages could make the post-auction repacking less damaging to low-power TV, but a GAO report issued last week shows broadcasters are pessimistic about the fate of the LPTV industry and doubtful of FCC efforts to preserve it (see 1612050062). The band plan for Stage 4 of the incentive auction doesn't reserve as much space for guard bands, making it easier for stations to be repacked and thus leaving more room for low-powers, emailed LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino. “We predict most all licensed LPTV and Translators will find a new channel.”
Though the draft emergency alert system order set for next week's FCC meeting agenda is largely free of provisions that were opposed by Republican commissioners and the pay-TV and broadcast industries, internal tensions on the eighth floor could keep the item from being approved, agency and industry officials told us. The item still includes the provisions that would make state EAS plans more uniform that were proposed in the NPRM, but reporting deadlines and cybersecurity requirements would be relaxed, and a controversial proposal to change the rules for pay-TV “force tuning” would be shifted to a Further NPRM, they said. That still may not leave the item with a clear path to being approved, an FCC official said.
The FCC and the next iteration of the Disability Advisory Committee should address the accessibility challenges of the IoT and the accessibility of emergency communications, alongside many other accessibility issues, said the various subcommittees at the group's final meeting Tuesday. The DAC is expected to be convened under the upcoming administration by February, said Elaine Gardner, attorney adviser in the Office of the Managing Director. Several speakers praised the DAC process for opening dialogue between industry and advocates on accessibility matters. That sort of cooperation could have prevented previous technology challenges for the disabled, such as the button-less, touch-screen design of most smartphones, said American Foundation for the Blind Public Policy Director Mark Richert.
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled against the FCC landlord Parcel 49C in its protest of the General Service Administration's handling of bids for the commission's new headquarters, according to court documents (in Pacer). The court dismissed Republic Properties' affiliate Parcel 49C's allegations (see 1609280048) of conflicts of interest in the GSA's selection of a new FCC HQ site in the Trammell Crow owned-Sentinel Square, near North Capitol and L streets NE in Washington's NoMa section. Trammel Crow was an intervenor and defendant in the case. Parcel 49C bid to have the commission stay at its current home at The Portals and the landlord's allegations were based on GSA's having contracted CBRE to broker the FCC's search for a new home. CBRE owns Trammell Crow, the eventual winning bidder, and also represented Parcel 49C. This wasn't a conflict because the information and employees involved were kept separate at the intertwined companies, said Trammell Crow and the GSA. Parcel 49C also argued the FCC request for a higher first-floor ceiling and backup power supply were unreasonable. Parcel 49C filed a notice of appeal in the case. GSA, Parcel 49C and Trammel Crow didn't comment Monday.