FCC Approves Direct Final Rule, AWS-3, 988 Georouting and Slamming Items

FCC Approves Direct Final Rule, AWS-3, 988 Georouting and Slamming Items

An FCC order couched as being about deleting outdated rules but outlining a new agency process that does away with notice-and-comment drew Anna Gomez's first dissent as a commissioner. The direct final rule (DFR) order was approved at the agency's...

FCC Adopts Direct Final Rule Over Protests

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 Thursday to give its bureaus explicit authority to use the direct final rulemaking process to eliminate regulations.FCC Chairman Brendan Carr touted the passage of the item, though his initial statement only focused on the 11 regulations the FCC was eliminating this month as part of the order, and did not mention the delegated authority to the bureaus.“Today’s action wil…

FCC Clears 11 "Outdated and Useless Rules"

A packed room and a busy agenda of items on the docket set the stage for the Federal Communications Commission’s July open meeting, where it passed all six of its proposed initiatives. Among the items the FCC approved included an update to bidding rules to enable the upcoming auction of AWS-3 spectrum licenses, as well as removing existing rules that Chairman Brendan Carr deemed as “outdated and useless.”  We summarized the proceedings. You can …

Pending Deletion Of ‘Outdated and Useless’ FCC Rules Challenged By Gomez | Radio & Television Business Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC has voted to remove 11 “outdated and useless” rule provisions covering 39 regulatory burdens, 7,194 words, and 16 pages from its books as part of Chairman Brendan Carr‘s “In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete” docket. By taking this action, the agency “expeditiously deletes rules adopted in a bygone era” —including obsolete regulations on telegraph, rabbit-ear broadcast receivers, and telephone booths. And yet, the Democratic …

Public Knowledge Rejects FCC Vote Undermining Agency Transparency, Accountability, and Public Input

Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve a Direct Final Rule to permit the agency’s offices and bureaus to eliminate existing rules without a transparent notice-and-comment rulemaking process – a clear violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. While the APA allows an agency to eliminate rules without transparent notice-and-comment in very limited cases for ‘good cause,’ the process adopted for eliminating rules by Direc…