Agenda

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) is eyeing a potential hearing on 5G wireless deployment and said bipartisan legislation from the previous Congress from Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) — the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act — could be a good starting point for the panel’s examination. “I would expect 5G and privacy to be among the first issues,” said Chairman Wicker. “I would hope that [5G] would be one of our first hearings.”

There is a new judge hearing oral argument in the Feb 1 challenge by Mozilla et al. to the Federal Communications Commission's recent rollback of network neutrality rules. Judge Judith Rogers is out and Judge Robert Wilkins is in, according to the oral argument calendar on the court's site. There was no explanation for the switch. The original panel had been Judges Rogers, Patricia Millett and Stephen Williams, with Judge Rogers presiding. With Judge Rogers out, Judge Millett will be presiding. 

President Donald Trump is ramping up his efforts to make a public case for his border wall as the partial government shutdown is now in its third week, planning a prime-time address Jan 8 and a visit to the border Jan 10. Some Democrats responded to the news of Trump’s address with concern that he would mislead the American people about the situation at the border.

Before the Senate voted to bring the Federal Communications Commission back to full strength, the White House informally discussed a potential slot on the commission with Senate Commerce Committee aide Crystal Tully. The conversations came amid a flurry of speculation about FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s future at the agency, though he said in November he expects to stay on for the next two years. The talks were preliminary, given that it’s unclear when a Republican seat will open up. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s term expires in June, but he can stay on as late as the end of 2020. 

Tech giants are facing a barrage of tough, negative coverage, with some of the same dynamics that drive saturation coverage of President Donald Trump. Many major news organizations — including The Washington Post, The Atlantic and CNN — are staffing up for greatly expanded tech coverage because: 1) Tech is the new politics. 2) This is partly in reaction to the techlash and partly in preparation for a post-Trump world, when websites can't count on politics to drive massive year-round traffic.

The Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom (RIF) Order reclassified broadband Internet access service from a telecommunications service to an information service, largely on the basis of an interpretation of broadband service that is fundamentally incorrect.  This reclassification gave the FCC the license not only to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules, but to abdicate its role overseeing the broadband market.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr are canceling their appearances at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show as a consequence of the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the Jan Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 30, 2019. Should the current lapse in funding end before Jan 9, additional items may be added to the tentative agenda:

Here’s what to expect as the fight over network neutrality enters its next act.

The three-judge panel has been picked to hear the appeal of Mozilla et al. to the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality deregulation. According to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, the Feb 1 oral argument in the Mozilla appeal will be heard by Judges Judith Rogers, Patricia Millett, and Stephen Williams.