Washington Beat

Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Commerce and Energy Committee and the Democratic members of the committee wrote a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) telling him that important government work, including prepping for the incentive spectrum auction program, needs to get back on track.

Pillsbury attorney Scott R. Flick has explained the rules pertaining to broadcast tobacco advertising and now he turns his attention to a new but related category – electronic cigarettes. Click and learn.

A quartet of senators are concerned about the adverse effect of too much caffeine when consumed by America’s youth and is calling on manufacturers of energy drinks that contain large amounts of the substance to avoid marketing to children.

Recent attempts to improve diversity of ownership in the communications field have relied on a careful definition of small business, which has been necessary to enable any such measure to withstand judicial scrutiny. MMTC is concerned that a definition used in a recent Senate bill may be deleterious.

The Senate Commerce Committee under Chairman Jay Rockefeller has announced the witness panel for an inquiry into the impact of the government shutdown on the US economy. Looking at the panelists, it’s safe to say the state of the communications business will not be a central focus

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a challenge of campaign finance rules that cap individual donations to candidates and PACs to $123,200. If the limits ratified by this same Court back in 1976 are swept aside, the limit will be a whole lot higher.

The FCC and FTC may be closed for business, but there are existing documents that are still of great interest to many that regularly conduct business with either or both. Some are suggesting the website withdrawals has been done to maximize the pain of the overall government shutdown and are otherwise unnecessary.

When reviewing a transaction over which it has regulatory authority, the FCC employs a shot clock to move things along in a timely manner. It has been frozen for the duration of the government shutdown.

The main reason the FCC is preparing to hold incentive auctions of television spectrum is to make room for mobile broadband service. But another goal is to keep some spectrum space for unlicensed use. A workshop on that facet of the project could fall prey to the shutdown.

First the government shut down the FCC, for the most part anyway, and although Senate Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has no statutory reason to do so, a vote on a number of federal nominees has been postponed.

Whether the FCC even has an October open meeting is anybody’s guess at this point, but for at least one class of FCC licensees,...

Public interest group Common Cause has made a home for former Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, and has its own definite opinions about many...

At its 9/26 open meeting, the Commission seemed to be full-speed ahead for opening the

The Free Flow of Information Act has made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a bipartisan 13-5 vote, and now a power...

Revolution Messaging would like to be able to place political advertisements on mobile phones, but runs into the problem of their very small screen...