The Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of General Counsel released a memo formalizing procedures for incorporating OEA analysis into FCC decisions, said a release Thursday. “This memorandum lays out a systematic way to incorporate economic analysis into Commission actions that can have a significant impact,” said Chairman Ajit Pai. The document focuses on rulemakings with an impact of $100 million or more, which, under FCC rules, require a “rigorous, economically-grounded cost-benefit analysis” from OEA. Though the memo concentrates on major rulemakings, the analyses it describes also apply to lesser ones.

The FCC Wireless Bureau decision to not include integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) equipment costs in the C-band clearing earth station lump sum amount was based on "ample evidence" and followed the law and the agency's own C-band clearing order, the full commission said in a docket 18-122 order Thursday denying ACA Connects' August application for review (see 2008140033). There's an extensive record showing IRD costs will be satellite operators' and they should be reimbursed, and ACA is ignoring plain language of the order, the agency said. ACA "relies on misleading quotations and ignores the breadth of evidence" in challenging the reasoning of the commission deciding compression equipment costs are satellite operator costs, it said. ACA emailed it was "reviewing the FCC's decision." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in September denied ACA's petition (in Pacer) to delay the lump sum election deadline (see 2008270052) (docket 20-1327).

The National Lifeline Association and Assist Wireless asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for an emergency stay of Monday’s FCC Wireline Bureau order (see 2011170064) raising the Lifeline broadband minimum service standard to 4.5 GB a month. The motion and petition for writ of mandamus (in Pacer) were filed Thursday. The MSS increase from 3 GB to 4.5 GB would take effect Dec. 1, and the emergency motion seeks a ruling on the stay by Nov. 30. The stay request asks the court to block the Dec. 1 increase until it can rule on the accompanying petition for writ of mandamus, which seeks to compel the FCC to act on petitions for reconsideration against the 2016 order that established an automatically increasing MSS. “Absent Court action to force the FCC to render a decision on the 2016 Order reconsideration petitions, [eligible telecommunications carriers], low-income consumers, and the public interest will suffer irreparable harm,” said the petition. NaLA’s filings argue the FCC is dragging its feet on the recon petitions, that allowing the Dec.1 increase will cause a great deal of harm during the pandemic, and that reasoning for the MSS order is arbitrary. Though Monday’s order was enacted at the bureau level and would normally be appealed to the full commission before the courts, NaLA said that would be “futile” because of the looming deadline and the agency’s decision to increase the MSS. The FCC didn’t comment.

House Democrats criticized the Commerce Department for creating a National Institute of Standards and Technology senior position without notice to congressional committees. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appointed Jason Richwine deputy undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology. Richwine published “blog posts for a prominent white supremacist website,” wrote House Science Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas, and Research and Technology Subcommittee Chair Haley Stevens, Michigan. “That Dr. Richwine holds these beliefs and has deliberately built a public profile around them is abhorrent; that he has apparently been rewarded for them by the Trump Administration is a scandal.” Commerce didn’t comment.

The judge in DOJ and states’ antitrust case against Google wants to plot an initial schedule before the December holidays, said U.S. District Court in Washington Judge Amit Mehta on a telephonic status conference Wednesday. Mehta asked parties to file Dec. 11 their proposed case management order and outstanding issues for the judge to resolve. It mightn’t include a concrete trial date if parties are planning to seek summary judgment, he said. The judge scheduled an 11 a.m. Dec. 18 telephonic hearing on the proposed scheduling order. Before committing to a schedule, Google wants more information about the third-party investigation done by the government, including a list of the third parties that provided information, said Google attorney John Schmidtlein. DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer said that kind of information isn’t usually given until discovery starts but noted the government plans to provide information including 100 potential witnesses in its initial disclosure due Friday. Mehta agreed that disclosure should provide Google sufficient information about the extent of the investigation. Wednesday's conference followed an Oct. 30 meeting (see 2010300027).

Southern Co. asked the FCC not to act now on revised 6 GHz rules, while others sought changes proposed in an April Further NPRM, in filings posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to make clear Wednesday whether there will be a vote at the Dec. 10 commissioners' meeting (see 2011130045). “Take additional time to fully evaluate and consider” concerns that have been raised “before adopting any further rules on unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band,” Southern said in calls with aides to Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The Open Technology Institute at New America told acting Chief Ron Repasi and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology that the FCC should act. “We urged the Commission to act on Verizon’s Petition for Reconsideration requesting higher power for unlicensed standard-power 6 GHz access points already subject to [automated frequency coordination] control,” Verizon said of a call with OET.

The union that represents FCC employees submitted to the Joe Biden presidential transition team a “blueprint” for improving the federal labor-management relationship and rescinding executive actions by the current White House that “undermined the civil service,” said a National Treasury Employees Union news release Tuesday. The NTEU plan recommends replacing appointees to administrative boards such as the Federal Service Impasses Panel and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the release said. Those bodies “have upended legal precedent with decisions that disproportionately favored management,” NTEU said. The plan urges the Biden administration on day one to roll back executive orders such as the October Schedule F order (see 2010300048). “A new administration is an opportunity to collaborate on restoring the executive branch agencies to the standards that the American people deserve and expect,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon.

Industry is underinvested in support and incentives for securing emerging technology, the World Economic Forum reported Monday. The WEF cited increases in regulatory requirements and cybersecurity costs. It noted cybercrime reporting is up 300% since the start of the pandemic, says the FBI. “We have been doing cybersecurity the same way for the past 15 years and it’s not going to work anymore,” said WEF Cybersecurity Lead Will Dixon. “What has changed is that now, the criminals of the future can easily exploit these emerging technologies and our growing interconnectivity at a scale not seen before.”

One significant deficiency found in the FCC's FY 2019 auditor's report on USF budgetary accounting has been corrected, but the other, on information technology controls at the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co., will take more time to fix, the agency said in its FY 2020 financial report Monday. It said it "worked diligently in FY 2020" on corrective action plans for the IT controls, "but more remains to correct this issue." It said it "will make every effort in FY 2021 to implement corrective action plans." The report includes an audit of agency financial statements by Kearney & Co., hired by the FCC Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report said that aside from the FY '19 deficiencies, there were "no reportable instances of noncompliance with laws, regulations and contracts applicable to FCC." The OIG made a series of recommendations, including USF contributions reform, adequate E-rate program controls and supporting rural hospital and healthcare providers during the pandemic "without creating gaps in controls that increase the risks for conflicts of interests, fraud and abuse."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., “looks forward to voting for” FCC nominee Nathan Simington, her chief of staff, Charles Flint, told us. She raised concerns in late October about his preparedness for an initial phone conversation with her (see 2011020001). President Donald Trump cited Blackburn in a tweet urging Senate Commerce Republicans to support Simington just before his Tuesday Senate Commerce confirmation hearing (see 2011100070). She has since faced pressure from other conservative organizations, including Revolver News.