Washington Beat

The successor to now-Sen. Marsha Blackburn as head of the all-important Subcommittee on Communications and Technology was just announced. So was the Ranking Member representing Republican viewpoints. Look no further than the fifth district of Ohio, home to such towns as Defiance.

After 17 years in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, Monday marks the final day for a Capitol Hill veteran who has served as the Senate Commerce Committee's Communications Director since January 2015. Where's he heading? The D.C. office of FTI Consulting.

He’s been tapped to serve as the Majority Whip for the 116th Congress, precluding him from continuing in his role as Chairman of the Senate committee charged with oversight of the FCC. But, that can't stop Sen. John Thune from having a lead role in this Senate rulemaking body.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican Senator from Mississippi, is now in charge of the powerful Senate body. On Wednesday, Wicker will lead an executive session of the committee to consider and approve its rules for the 116th Congress.

South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune has officially passed the gavel to his successor as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation — the committee in the upper body of Congress that oversees the FCC.

On Monday, Harry Jessell, of TVNewsCheck, wrote a much-discussed column titled "Let’s Make The Partial FCC Shutdown Permanent." Was Jessell for real, or just joshing? It appears he was serious about his comments. So is featured columnist Ken Benner, who offers his thoughts. We offer an Observation.

A partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer who advised communications providers and trade associations on strategic, policy, and legal matters has taken the SVP of Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs post at USTelecom.

It’s 2019, and to mark the new year featured columnist Ken Benner has pledged to de-clutter his 60+ years of collected broadcast industry documents. He's in his second month of shredding, and just uncovered an item he challenges anyone "to find anything so pathetically and disgustingly over-complicated in the massive historical files of FCC regulations."

The National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF) is accepting entries for the 2019 Celebration of Service to America Awards, recognizing outstanding community service by local broadcasters.

Pillsbury attorneys Scott Flick and Warren Kessler have published their annual calendar of upcoming regulatory deadlines for broadcasters — "a compendium of the currently 'known knowns'” of 2019. It’s chock-full of dates and deadlines affecting TV and radio in the coming year, and cross-references some of Pillsbury's other advisories to help stations meet their regulatory obligations in the year ahead.

As featured Media Information Bureau columnist Ken Benner looks back at 2018 and the regulatory atmosphere for media companies, he turns his full attention to Ajit Pai. In Benner's view, Pai is empowered to reverse a four-decade decline of broadcasting -- a direct result of hefty financial penalties handed down to licensees.

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.