Following up on his first major policy speech just two weeks ago, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summer slowdown in the nation’s capital with a major push to advance his “Build America Agenda” and other policies.
In a blog laying out some of the FCC’s summer plans, Carr emphasized network infrastructure issues, particularly a promise to “consider a proposal to curtail one of the biggest obstacles to building in America: needless and costly environmental reviews,” he said.
The blog did not mention a reconsideration of broadcast ownership rules, NextGen TV broadcasting or certain other issues that are top of mind for TV and radio broadcasters.
But Carr said that the FCC would vote this month to “eliminate 98 obsolete broadcast rules and requirements — totaling 5,117 words and a little over 12 pages — like 1970s-era regulations dictating the kind of testing equipment radio stations are required to purchase.”
He also promised that the agency will embark on a major review of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts in August. He called it a “ground-up re-examination.”
“EAS sends lifesaving information using TV and radio outlets, and our Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) distribute the emergency notices we receive on our mobile phones. With underlying frameworks that are 31 and 13 years old respectively, we think it’s time to explore if structural changes to these systems are needed, with an eye towards making sure we are leveraging the latest technology to save lives.”
Carr did not elaborate on what those structural changes might be.
There have been various efforts at the commission across multiple administrations to tweak the EAS system, including several under the recent Biden administration.
In 2021 the commission adopted several rule changes that involved both EAS and WEA. It also explored aspects of using the internet in alerting. In 2023 it required Wireless Emergency Alerts be sent in 13 languages as well as American Sign Language, but the commission has been criticized under the Trump administration for delaying implementation. Multilingual alerts also have long been a goal of some EAS reformers.
Last year the FCC created a new emergency event code for missing and endangered persons. Also, former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wanted a plan that would require communications providers that participate in EAS or WEA to implement cybersecurity risk management plans.
And as we have been reporting recently, the National Association of Broadcasters has been pushing the FCC to expedite a rule change that would allow EAS functions to be performed in software.
But none of those initiatives involved a full-scale structural review of EAS or WEA.
In his blog, Carr also wrote that the FCC “will also vote to initiate a review of our system for collecting real-time data on network outages and restoration during and after major disasters. Since its inception in 2007, our Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) has proven to be a valuable tool for collecting actionable information to help with recovery efforts. While the DIRS reports are valuable, they can be time-consuming to produce, drawing resources away from responding to an ongoing disaster. The commission will vote on reforms to streamline DIRS to make sure that its benefits outweigh its burdens.”
Much of the blog post focused on infrastructure issues and closely followed the themes Carr laid out earlier this month in his Build America speech outside a tower training facility in South Dakota.
In the blog, Carr particularly highlighted his plans to restrict and reduce the impact of environmental regulations, a major policy priority of the Trump administration.
“Specifically, under the sclerotic regulatory regime that has been grafted onto the National Environmental Protection Act or NEPA process, federal agencies spend more time on average (4.5 years) to complete pre-construction environmental impact statements than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge,” he wrote.
“All three branches of the government realize that the NEPA process is broken,” he argued. “In 2023, Congress reformed NEPA to eliminate many unnecessary reviews and accelerate others. Right after his inauguration in 2025, President Trump directed federal agencies to streamline their NEPA processes to unleash new builds. A few months later, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling to curb NEPA litigation abuse. Now it is time for the FCC to do its part. We will consider a proposal to revamp the FCC’s approach to NEPA and get America building again.”
At the end of the post, Carr also took a swipe at the New York Times for publishing an article on his crackdown on DEI efforts at media companies.
The full blog and his other policy highlights can be read here.
