WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- State utility commissioners at the NARUC conference grappled Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of the Chevron doctrine. Loper Bright, “though not framed as a federalist decision," has "modest pro-state implications,” Wilkinson Barker’s Daniel Kahn said during a panel of telecom law experts. Earlier, an NTCA official told the NARUC Telecom Committee that his association plans to seek reconsideration of an FCC order on next-generation 911 if commissioners approve it at their Thursday meeting.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
What is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the U.S. federal government’s regulatory agency for the majority of telecommunications activity within the country. The FCC oversees radio, television, telephone, satellite, and cable communications, and its primary statutory goal is to expand U.S. citizens’ access to telecommunications services.
The Commission is funded by industry regulatory fees, and is organized into 7 bureaus:
- Consumer & Governmental Affairs
- Enforcement
- Media
- Space
- Wireless Telecommunications
- Wireline Competition
- Public Safety and Homeland Security
As an agency, the FCC receives its high-level directives from Congressional legislation and is empowered by that legislation to establish legal rules the industry must follow.
Former President Donald Trump famously doesn't do policy detail, but this time around his senior advisers and self-described MAGA revolutionaries are doing it for him. Trump himself has repeatedly called for punishment of disfavored media, including FCC-licensed "fake news" outlets. But the specifics of the disruptions planned for policy and governance of telecom (along with many other sectors) are most explicitly framed in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the massive policy prescription directed in part by Trump's past and presumably future advisers and appointees. Among contributors is FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, author of the chapter on the future of the agency and telecom policy as a whole. In this Comm Daily Special Report, published on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, our award-winning editorial team looks at the ideas and the people that would transform telecom in America if Donald Trump is returned to office. (Our counterpart examination of Democratic plans -- whether under a reelected President Joe Biden or someone else -- will appear in August.)
Expect a Donald Trump White House and FCC to focus on deregulation and undoing the agency's net neutrality and digital discrimination rules, telecom policy experts and FCC watchers tell us. Brendan Carr, one of the two GOP minority commissioners, remains the seeming front-runner to head the agency if Trump wins the White House in November (see 2407120002). Despite repeated comments from Trump as a candidate and president calling for FCC action against companies such as CNN and MSNBC over their news content, many FCC watchers on both sides of the aisle told us they don’t expect the agency to actually act against cable networks or broadcast licenses under a second Trump administration.
States hope they can increase federal engagement on telecom no matter who is president in 2025, current and former state utility commissioners said in interviews. In a possible second Donald Trump presidency, “the states and localities are really going to be where broadband policy is made,” predicted Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society senior fellow. Some said there is a lot of uncertainty about how a Trump administration might change rules for state grants under NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-25 Wednesday to advance its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill without advance FY 2027 money for CPB after Democrats didn’t attempt to restore the allocation. The House Rules Committee, meanwhile, will consider filed amendments to Appropriations’ FY25 Financial Services Subcommittee bill (HR-8773) that aim to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding. The measure proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067).
Sustaining broadband networks is a “paramount objective” of the Nebraska Universal Service Fund (NUSF) high-cost program, especially with the "influx of federal and state deployment funding," the Nebraska Public Service Commission decided in a Tuesday order. Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday for two orders on state USF changes (docket NUSF-139) and to consider sanctions against Windstream for three separate 911 outages (docket 911-076).
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel showed no willingness Tuesday to abandon a March Further NPRM that would ban bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and multi-dwelling unit owners (see 2403050069) despite bipartisan criticism during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing. She was similarly unmoved by GOP skepticism about a proposal requiring disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads (see 2405220061). During the hearing, Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr called for the FCC to backtrack on both proposals because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision and other rulings (see 2407080039).
ISPs told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in two cases overturning the Chevron doctrine means the FCC’s net neutrality order must be stayed pending judicial review (see 2407010036). The FCC said Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and the other case had no implications for its order, which reclassified broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act.
The FCC will hold a forum on direct video calling (DVC) and related issues July 30. The session will explore how government agencies can implement DVC, an internet service that allows communication between American sign language users without the need for a translator. The session will begin at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters. The forum "features an overview of relevant Executive Orders regarding accessible Federal customer services ... and exhibits by DVC providers," the FCC said.
The FCC received unanimous support from commenters that have filed so far for an NTIA proposal that calls for using geofencing to allow higher equivalent isotropically radiated power limits for cellular vehicle-to-everything on-board units in the 5.9 GHz band (see 2406100032). Comments were posted on Friday and Monday (docket 19-138).