John Hendel

Congress is angling to impose some training wheels on the Trump administration when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on broadband deployment. Lawmakers are eyeing the reconciliation process for the farm bill as a way to check the Agriculture Department, which manages various telecom subsidies through its Rural Utilities Service (RUS). “Appropriate guidance in the farm bill being reconciled and the department’s continued vigilance are critical to avoiding another boondoggle,” said a Senate GOP aide, referring to past alleged waste in the program.

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s singularly nasty breakup with Tribune Media may put a serious damper on the conservative-leaning broadcast giant's ability to expand, despite its persisting hunger to do so. Sinclair insists it will press on with business as usual and is already eyeing other acquisition targets in its bid to expand into a full-fledged conservative media titan on par with Fox News.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) won’t be the second Republican to support Democrats’ Congressional Review Act effort to revive Obama-era net neutrality rules, a Young spokeswoman confirmed. Fight for the Future relayed an Alaskan business owner’s account of Rep Young privately pledging, she said, to sign the Democrats’ discharge petition to force a CRA floor vote. Rep.

House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Marsha Blackburn(R-TN) is looking to consolidate a number of broadband proposals under the banner of National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) reauthorization. “I would very much like to get this done before the August break. I don’t know if that is going to be a possibility, but I sure would like to be moving this out.” Chairman Blackburn also expressed interest in reviewing the Senate’s recent bipartisan 5G wireless legislation, S.

Democrats and left-leaning public interest groups are turning up the heat on House Republicans on net neutrality, as they seek to rally internet-savvy voters around the issue ahead of the midterm elections. A group of House Democrats is seeking to force a floor vote on a Senate-passed resolution that would undo the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rollback, restoring the Obama-era rules. “There’s tremendous pressure that’s going to be put on Republicans not to sign,” said Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), who leads the House effort.

Geoffrey Starks, who sailed through a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation vote with unanimous backing, had seemed poised June 28 to assume a vacant Federal Communications Commission seat in a Senate vote by unanimous consent, paired with current-FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s nomination for a second term. But despite optimism from Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), the nominations didn't go through.

Network neutrality skeptics sought to sound the alarm during a TechFreedom Hill briefing on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of Obama-era open internet rules. The measure passed the Senate on a 52-47 vote, but still needs 218 backers to force a vote in the House.

The Senate Commerce Committee is looking to schedule a nomination hearing for Federal Communications Commission nominee Geoffrey Starks “as soon as we can,” pending paperwork, said Chairman John Thune (R-SD). The White House sent the nomination to the Senate on June 4, and Chairman Thune said he wants to pair Starks’ nomination with that of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to a second term. Packaging Republican and Democratic nominees together typically smooths their path through the Senate. “Hopefully we’ll be able to pair them and get a vote,” Chairman Thune said.

The House Appropriations Committee quietly rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to help restore the US operations of the controversial Chinese tech megafirm, ZTE. Lawmakers from both parties unanimously agreed to include in an appropriations bill a provision that would uphold sanctions against the Chinese phone-maker, just days after President Donald Trump revealed in a tweet that he has directed his administration to help put the company “back in business.” The language was added to a relatively uncontroversial House spending bill, which funds the Commerce Department, among other ag

Earl Comstock, a high-ranking deputy to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, is quietly pushing for President Donald Trump to support a congressional effort to restore the net neutrality rules, He is advising that President Trump back a resolution that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission repeal, a move that would put President Trump in direct opposition to Ajit Pai, his hand-picked FCC chairman.