Environmental Health Trust’s inaugural digest of US federal matters!
October 10, 2023
Contents
Comment on FCC funding for Wi-Fi on school buses- by TODAY!
Federal bill updates
Comment on FCC streamlining for satellites
URGENT: COMMENTS NEEDED ON FCC FUNDING OF
SCHOOL BUS WI-FI
October 12th is the deadline to submit comments regarding FCC funding for Wi-Fi on school buses and wireless in schools
ACTION STEP: Submit a brief comment or submit PDF documents in Docket 13-184
Key issues to comment on:
Whether FCC should expand E-Rate eligibility to provide funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see draft declaratory ruling)
Whether FCC should continue to allow E- Rate funding to be used for fixed wireless and satellite connectivity to schools and libraries, and Wi-Fi in schools
Click for more info here
Background: FCC manages the E- Rate program, which provides funding to schools and libraries for telecommunications and information services, using funds from the Universal Service Fund. Since the program began in 1998, E-Rate has disbursed over $45 billion for connectivity at schools and libraries (see Table 4.2). Each year, the FCC is required to seek comment and
then publish a list of services eligible for E-Rate funding. The E-Rate Eligible Services list for prior years has included eligibility for funding fixed wireless and satellite
connectivity to schools and libraries, and for Wi-Fi within these buildings.
Administrative history: FCC seeks comment, deadline October 12, on
the list of eligible expenses for the upcoming fiscal year 2024. FCC Chair Rosenworcel proposed the expansion of Wi-Fi to school buses the last year, but the Commission did not act on this (see paragraph 7), presumably because it was deadlocked 2-2. Since Anna Gomez was sworn in last month as fifth Commissioner, the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation wrote to her opposing the expansion, calling it a “Plan to Subsidize TikTok on School Buses.” The FCC plans to consider this expansion when it meets on October 19.
FEDERAL BILL UPDATES
S.1648 (Launch Communications Act) is scheduled to be voted on any day by the full Senate, after sailing through the Commerce committee without a hearing. The bill has been unanimously supported by Democrats and Republicans. (If it passes in the
Senate, it will need to be reconciled with HR 682 in the House, which is almost identical but a bit more expansive). The bill allows commercial satellite companies to use spectrum that is currently used for national security purposes. It would help pave the way for hundreds of thousands of satellite launches in the coming years, with approximately 14,000 launches per year, from existing applications alone. For more detail, see this letter to key committees.
S.2018 (Connect Our Parks Act) will also be coming to the Senate floor any day. It passed by voice vote on September 21 in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It forces the National Park Service to plan for deploying cellular service throughout national parks, and to provide broadband Internet access on a “technology neutral” basis, which has come to mean
that decision-makers cannot prefer wired over wireless technology. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility opposed parts of the bill. Read EHT Founder and President op-ed on this bill.
HR 3557 advanced in the House on October 2, with both the Transportation & Infrastructure and Natural Resources committees discharging (in effect signing off on the bill), without a hearing or a vote in either committee. The bill is now pending a vote before the
full House; it’s unlikely to advance until a permanent speaker is seated. Representative should be on the lookout to avoid this bill get inserted in the back of larger appropriations bill at the 11th hour. This bill virtually eliminates local authority over communications facilities and exempts most facilities from NEPA and NHPA. more info on this bill, see our factsheet.
S.2855 (CLOSE THE GAP Act) or Closing Long Overdue Streamlining Encumbrances To Help Expeditiously Generate Approved Permits Act, was introduced on September 20 in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, by Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY). Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) is a cosponsor, and key swing vote on the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband. The
bill promotes deployment of communications facilities (including wireless) on 670 million acres of federal lands, including national parks, rangeland, national forests, wildlife refuges, and on Indian reservations, which collectively represent approximately 30% of all land area in the United States (and over 95% of federal land). It exempts a wide range of communications projects on federal land from NEPA and NHPA. It also exempts from NEPA and NHPA any expansion or addition of antennas to any existing antenna location (under Section 6409a), on any land anywhere in the country
(not only federal land), with a provision similar to HR 3557 Sec 301c.
COMMENT ON FCC SATELLITE STREAMLINING
The FCC IS seeking comment on streamlining rules for satellite deployments in “Expediting Initial Processing of Satellite and Earth Station Applications; Space Innovation”
Action: Submit Comments to Docket 22-271
Submit a brief comment or submit PDF documents
Comments can be submitted to Docket 22-271 until at least October 20 (likely later than that)
Details on FCC Satellite proposal: FCC seeks comment on “streamlining” rules for satellites in a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Selected topics to comment on:
Whether to expand the definition of "minor modification" to allow satellite operators to modify
space and ground-based stations without FCC review, including changes to antenna parameters, and notify FCC of changes after they are implemented (paragraphs 88-90)
Whether to modify certain rules to make it easier for non-US satellite operators to operate in the US (paragraphs 92-94)
Whether to impose shot clocks for certain satellite and ground station applications (paragraphs 98-99)
Whether to streamline the interagency review process for satellites (paragraphs 102-106)
Whether to streamline and expedite various aspects of deployment of space and ground-based stations (paragraph 107-110), as well as other matters set out in the NPRM
Do you know of other federal wireless news to share? Send snippets to info@ehtrust.org with the word FEDERAL in the subject line
More resources including our latest action alert at:
https://ehtrust.org/congress/
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