The FCC’s draft NPRM on changing how the agency enforces the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has led to only one ex parte meeting at the FCC (see 2507170048); however, that doesn’t mean the changes aren’t controversial, industry and agency officials said. They predicted approval when commissioners vote Thursday, but potentially with at least a partial dissent from Commissioner Anna Gomez.
CPB said Friday it has begun an “orderly wind-down of its operations,” given enactment of the 2025 Rescissions Act to claw back $1.1 billion of its advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s advancement Thursday of its FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee spending bill, which didn’t allocate money to the public broadcasting entity (see 2507310062). Meanwhile, the FCC didn’t comment on whether the Enforcement Bureau will continue investigating PBS and NPR stations for possible violations of underwriting rules (see 2501300065) after the commission released a set of April letters from Chairman Brendan Carr to House lawmakers indicating that the probe “remains ongoing.”
Wireless and space interests are seeking tweaks to the satellite and earth station application processing draft order on the agenda for Thursday's FCC meeting (see 2507170048).
Ending the collection of biennial ownership data through Form 323 would eliminate virtually the only source of information about broadcast-ownership diversity, several civil rights and public interest groups told us. The FCC Media Bureau on Tuesday announced an 18-month pause on collecting Form 323 and seemed to indicate that the requirement to submit the data will be permanently deleted (see 2507300070). Halting Form 323 collection would be “yet another structural policy decision to brush civil rights under the rug, to obscure discrimination in the broadcast industry,” said Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez in an email. “It's a shameful and brazen dereliction of the FCC's duty to serve all Americans.”
ABC and NBC “should look to the Paramount precedent recently set by this Commission,” said Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr in a letter Thursday praising the FCC’s probe into Comcast NBCUniversal’s relationship with affiliates. “At a time of New York-Hollywood-Silicon Valley dominance over the vast majority of news and entertainment content, what makes local broadcast stations special is precisely their localness,” Suhr said. “The networks should be encouraging that unique market advantage, not undermining it with programming diktats or must-carry contract provisions.” Because Carr warned ABC about its relationship to affiliate stations in December, it would be “doubly disappointing” if Comcast “ignored those concerns after they were on the record regarding another network,” Suhr said. "The Center for American Rights applauds your decision to direct the Media Bureau to open an inquiry into Comcast’s treatment of NBC’s local affiliates."
Public interest groups raised concerns about an FCC draft notice of inquiry that proposes changes to how the agency prepares its Telecom Act Section 706 reports to Congress (see 2507170048). Commissioners are set to vote on it at their meeting Thursday. Representatives of Public Knowledge, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and X-Lab met with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a filing Thursday in docket 25-233.
CTIA representatives met with aides to the three FCC commissioners in support of a draft NPRM on agency enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act, which is set for a vote at Thursday's commissioner meeting (see 2507170048). CTIA “strongly supports adoption of the Draft NPRM and expeditious action by the FCC on its proposals,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 25-217. “As the Draft NPRM outlines, environmental reviews are only statutorily required for projects that a Federal agency determines are subject to substantial control by that agency, and review is not required where a statutory exclusion applies, such as for non-Federal actions with no or minimal Federal funding or involvement.”
Representatives of the 5G Automotive Association met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty on the group’s concerns about interference caused by out-of-band emissions (OOBE) from very-low-power and potential new geofenced variable-power devices in the 6 GHz band to cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) operations in the 5.9 GHz band.
The FCC should consider narrowing its proposed presumption that a violation of the Cable Landing Licensing Act should disqualify a party from future licenses, the North American Submarine Cable Association said. In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, NASCA said the presumption in the draft subsea cable order on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda (see 2507170048) would disqualify parties from future licenses, even though in the past, parties haven't lost licenses after entering into consent decrees for admitted violations. The presumption should be limited to instances where the violation wasn't remediated with a consent decree or compliance plan, resulted in a lost license or authorization, or was found by the FCC to be intentional, said NASCA. The group's filing recapped a meeting with counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, while a nearly identical filing documented a meeting with Commissioner Anna Gomez's office.
AI-driven growth in fiber capacity points to a clear need "to rapidly expand both route miles and fiber miles to meet the new needs," the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and consultancy RVA said in a white paper Thursday. They forecast that roughly double the route miles of fiber will be needed by 2029, from 95,000 today to 187,000, and more than double the fiber miles, from 159 million last year to 373 million by 2029. "Meeting this need will be far from easy," the FBA and RVA said, adding that it will require such steps as permitting relief, as well as fiber and power providers collaborating on joint easements.