Washington Beat

There are 53 million Hispanics in the US, comprising 17% of the total population, and the FCC is going to conduct a study to determine how well their television needs are being met.

Once again, confirmation of nominees to the FCC is on ice because of one disgruntled senator. This time, the New York Times is calling on the colleagues of Ted Cruz (R-TX) to pressure him so Tom Wheeler and Michael O’Rielly can get to work.

If a company is going to claim that its wares are made in the USA, it had better be able to back up that claim – and the claim better refer not just to the finished products, but to all of the components of the finished product.

In an address to National Religious Broadcasters, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said the organization’s members should not need to seek FCC permission every time they want to collect donations for a local soup kitchen or shelter for battered women.

But its October Open Meeting is out of business – after a forced two weeks-plus vacation, FCC staffers aren’t going to be able to get the session together. It was originally scheduled for 10/22/13. And guidance is forthcoming if you missed a filing deadline due to the shutdown.

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.