The FCC doesn’t have the authority to expand the base of regulatory fee payors, said a host of trade groups in reply comments on the agency’s proposed 2025 regulatory fees. Replies were due Monday in docket 25-190. NAB and Telesat pushed for the FCC to expand the payor base in their comments filed earlier this month (see 2507080044).

Consumers’ Research said the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should look more closely at an issue raised in the dissent and a footnote in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision in June upholding the legality of the USF. The FCC and DOJ last week asked the 5th Circuit not to require further briefing but close the case (see 2507170063).

Five personnel items have been added to the FCC's July 24 meeting agenda, according to the Sunshine Notice issued Thursday. One regards appointment of a defense commissioner in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The defense commissioner oversees the agency's homeland security, national security and emergency preparedness activities. Also on the agenda are five promotions.

The FCC and DOJ on Thursday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to require a briefing on a potential remaining issue after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected a Consumers’ Research challenge to the way the FCC manages the USF (see 2507020049). The problem for the FCC has been a footnote in the majority opinion, which noted that several provisions in Section 254 of the Communications Act weren't challenged and which expressed no opinion about whether those posed any additional problems for the program (see 2507150081).

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Wednesday that votes are possible this week on NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth but said the chamber’s schedule remains in flux. Thune filed cloture on Roth Tuesday night, putting her on track for confirmation before the August recess, as expected (see 2505290053). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and lobbyists told us they expect the chamber to hold at least the initial cloture vote before the chamber leaves for the weekend. “I hope and believe it'll be this week,” Cruz said. The cloture motion on Roth ripens Thursday.

The News Media Alliance is looking to state laws, legal action and licensing deals to protect its news publication members from AI exploitation and tech company competition, said NMA President Danielle Coffey at a Media Institute luncheon Wednesday. “We are in the business of news. But no matter how important that news is, it's unsustainable if the business side is struggling, and right now, business is being impacted by difficulties in monetizing our content,” she said.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Wednesday that a case examining the legality of the FCC’s prison-calling order will proceed. The FCC had asked the court to hold the case in abeyance in light of the Wireline Bureau’s decision to delay some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2507100061). Groups representing prisoners and their families want the case to be heard.

The Trump administration is more focused on the Caribbean region than previous administrations, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said at a meeting of the trade association for telecom operators across that region. “We are putting our region, the Americas, first” and “we are doing so through actions, not just words,” he said. Carr’s remarks were posted Tuesday. Carr noted that the last FCC chairman to address CANTO was Ajit Pai in 2018.

The Rural Wireless Association will ask the full FCC to review an order passed by the Wireless Bureau's and Office of International Affairs' acting chiefs Friday approving T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular (see 2507110045), the group said Monday in an emailed statement. But new Commissioner Olivia Trusty indicated her support for the three merger orders handed down last week, suggesting that Chairman Brendan Carr would likely have a majority for approval if he sought a commissioner vote.

Citing the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' finding against the FCC on its 2023 one-to-one robotext consent policy order (see 2501240068), the agency said it has removed the order's language from its rule book. The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order Monday to eliminate the rule marked the second time in days that the agency has reset its regulations to an earlier version due to a court decision; the Wireless Bureau said last week that it was restoring the agency's rules to language dating to before the 2024 net neutrality order, which was ultimately shot down by the 6th Circuit (see 2507110016). As with Wireless' net neutrality order, Consumer and Government Affairs said the FCC didn't have to conduct a notice-and-comment proceeding for the amendment because it's implementing the 11th Circuit's mandate, and the agency doesn't have discretion to depart from that.