The FCC's reaffirming that SpaceX doesn't qualify for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program is in direct contravention to the agency's supposed prioritization of closing the digital divide, SpaceX told the agency Tuesday night after the FCC announced that the commissioners had voted 3-2 to uphold a Wireline Bureau decision that SpaceX couldn't participate in RDOF. That order "fails to explain how the Commission will bridge the connectivity gap that the Order leaves open by excluding the one provider that can rapidly accomplish this goal, while approving RDOF 'winners' that have already acknowledged they will not be able to do so," SpaceX said. Voting against the order were the two minority commissioners. Commissioner Brendan Carr posted on X that the decision was "regulatory harassment of Elon Musk." In his dissent, Commissioner Nathan Simington said he "was disappointed by this wrongheaded decision when it was first announced, but the majority today lays bare just how thoroughly and lawlessly arbitrary it was. If this is what passes for due process and the rule of law at the FCC, then this agency ought not to be trusted with the adjudicatory powers Congress has granted it and the deference that the courts have given it."

The House will vote as soon as Monday on the Senate-passed version of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (S-2787), as expected, the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday night. The House Commerce Committee advanced identical companion HR-5677 Tuesday. HR-5677/S-2787 would give the FCC authority for 90 days to issue T-Mobile and other winning bidders the licenses they bought in the 2.5 GHz band auction last year. Spectrum policy observers view the measure as a stopgap to temporarily bring back a small part of the FCC’s lapsed auction authority after nearly nine months of stalled legislative talks on Capitol Hill related to a broader legislative package. The House will consider S-2787 under suspension of the rules, which speeds floor consideration of noncontroversial bills but requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

The Joe Biden administration released its national spectrum strategy Monday and a presidential memorandum on modernizing U.S.policy is coming. Administration officials provided some of the details Monday morning on a call with reporters. The plan identifies 2,786 MHz of spectrum for potential repurposing,

The FCC has 90 days to either complete the 2018 quadrennial review or show cause why the NAB’s petition for mandamus shouldn’t be granted, said an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday evening. The order doesn’t grant NAB’s petition for mandamus but defers it until the 90-day period. Broadcast industry officials told us the court’s urging the agency to soon complete the 2018 QR is the result they wanted. The FCC didn’t immediately comment, but the agency had argued that its delay in completing the QR was justified.

The FCC would be able to remain open until Oct. 20 in the event of a government shutdown, the agency told staff in an email today, according to several FCC employees. The agency’s appropriation runs out Sept. 30, but the FCC has enough funds from other sources such as fees to pay all employees and contractors through close of business on Oct. 20, staff were told. The agency has been able to keep staff in the building while other federal agencies were furloughed during past government shutdowns. The FCC's next commissioners' meeting, where it's scheduled to vote on a controversial net neutrality NPRM, is Oct.19. The FCC didn’t immediately comment.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday the FCC will take up an order on the use of very-low-power 6 GHz devices anywhere without location awareness or automated frequency control, at the commissioners' meeting Oct. 19. As expected, the FCC isn’t addressing at this time increasing the power at which low-power indoor access points may operate. Both uses were teed up in 2020 Further NPRM.

October's FCC open meeting agenda will include a draft NPRM proposing what would largely be a return of the agency's 2015 net neutrality rules under Title II authority, commission officials told the media in a call Tuesday. The NPRM, to be released publicly Thursday, would forebear from rate regulation and network bundling requirements while also preserving the agency's national security authority to block authorizations of companies controlled by an adversarial foreign government, they said. Asked about what market failures necessitate a return of such rules, they said ISPs are already regulated but by a patchwork of state laws, government contracting policies and executive orders. They said what the FCC is putting forward instead would be a uniform national standard, and seeks comment on how to do that. Asked about how such regulation might fare under the current U.S. Supreme Court and its major questions doctrine, they said agency classification of broadband under the Communications Act goes back to the 1990s and has been upheld by federal courts on multiple occasions, so the Title II approach has strong legal grounding. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is scheduled to give an address this afternoon at 2:30 EDT elaborating on the NPRM.

Anna Gomez is now an FCC commissioner, having been sworn in Monday. She was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month. "As the first Latina to serve in this position in over two decades, it is especially meaningful to be sworn in as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month," she said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Congress, Chairwoman [Jessica] Rosenworcel, my fellow Commissioners, and the talented and dedicated FCC staff to ensure that every person in every community, of every geography and income, has access to modern telecommunications services. I am eager to hear from all and to bring my experience in domestic and international telecommunications to serve the American people.” She said Rosenworcel's deputy chief of staff for administration, Deena Shetler, would be her acting chief of staff and media and international legal advisor. She said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staffer Edyael Casaperalta, would be acting legal advisor for wireless, public safety and consumer protection; Wireline Bureau staffer Hayley Steffen would be her wireline and space acting legal advisor; and Wireline Bureau staff assistant Anna Holland would be her acting executive assitant.

Steve Lang will replace Anna Gomez as head of the U.S. delegation to the World Radiocommunication Conference, numerous industry officials confirmed. An email went to members of the U.S. delegation Tuesday confirming the change. Gomez, whose nomination to the FCC was confirmed last week, was widely seen as facing a tough challenge trying to serve as a commissioner and also as the eventual ambassador to the WRC, which starts Nov. 20 in Dubai.

The Senate voted 55-43 Thursday to confirm Anna Gomez to the FCC, paving the way for the commission to soon shift to a Democratic majority for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. The commission has been in a 2-2 partisan tie throughout that period. The chamber invoked cloture on Gomez by the same margin earlier in the afternoon.