Washington Beat

On Monday, the FCC and the Israeli Ministry of Justice came together in a joint commitment to give its respective citizens something Chairman Ajit Pai calls "digital opportunity." The two agencies, in Jerusalem, convened the first meeting of a new Joint Working Group to exchange information and learn from each other’s experiences. Here are Pai's remarks on the gathering.

To the shock of no one, the committee with oversight of the FCC will be lead in the 116th Congress by one of the biggest detractors of Chairman Ajit Pai and the GOP-driven "modernization" seen under his watch.

With the unanimous approval of a lame-duck U.S. Senate, more people will soon -- hopefully -- receive relevant emergency alerts on their TVs, radios and mobile phones. At the same time, new ways of alerting a public now consuming more streaming video and audio is being explored. It's up to the House to act on the Act.

There's plenty of forward-looking at what the new year might bring. To help with that, Fletcher Heald & Hildreth attorneys put their magnifying glass on FCC-related deadlines that await broadcasters.

As one of the 17 surviving SBE Charter members, featured columnist Ken Benner played "a small but significant and proud role" in the development of The Society of Broadcast Engineers and, later, The National Radio and Telecommunications Engineers. With the recent passing of SBE Past President Barry Thomas, Benner reflects on the importance of these two groups.

Geoffrey Starks' FCC nomination vote -- and that for another Commissioner -- could be coming in days, not weeks. Starks' selection by the White House as the man to fill Tom Wheeler's seat came five months ago. Since then, there's been inaction from the Senate. It's likely tied to another Commissioner's future.

For most Westchester County residents, the town of Croton-On-Hudson is known mainly for its train station. Now, it is gaining national notice for a joint investigation involving the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and the county District Attorney’s Office resulting in the arrest and arraignment of a pirate radio operator.

A company that considers itself "the inventor of multi-room wireless home audio" has just snagged the General Counsel and Chief Strategy Officer for the company that Nexstar wishes to acquire. It's a man many in D.C. know very well: He served as Chief of Staff to a former FCC Chairman.

It didn't even take a voice vote or discussion at Wednesday's scheduled FCC Open Meeting for the Commissioners to say yes to the plan, with word of the OK coming as the Commission christened a new Office.

The Chief of Staff for the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection since April 2016 is trading in her government job for a role as a Partner in one of the nation's most prestigious communications law firms.

The FCC has started to send out by e-mail notices to numerous radio stations, notifying them that there are issues with their online public inspection files. The email notices do not reveal what the specific problem is, notes D.C. attorney David Oxenford.

A seventh Meeting for the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council is now a go, the FCC announced on Friday.

A Senate vote on Thursday affirmed who will take over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from acting director Mick Mulvaney, the subject of this column from Ken Benner. Mulvaney's attitude towards how things, in his mind, get done in D.C. irks Benner yet again.

For the past 14 years, she has served in the FCC's Office of General Counsel as an Ethics Counsel. In 2018, she led the agency’s ethics team as Assistant General Counsel for Ethics. Now, this 31-year Commission veteran will serve as its new Administrative Law Judge.

On Nov. 7, the FCC said no to a FOIA request for portions of the Commission’s ECFS server logs related to the "Restoring Internet Freedom" Docket. What's getting attention, however, is a statement tied to the Order from Chairman Pai that appears to acknowledge Russia-based meddling.