FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for June 2026 Meeting

By Jennifer L. Richter, Sean T. Conway, Virginia Hiner Antypas, Halie B. Peacher, Sharanya Sriram, and Alexandra M. Van Cleef, Akin
June 9, 2026

On June 4, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a tentative agenda for the FCC’s June Open Meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, June 25 at 10:30 AM ET. The agenda reflects Chairman Brendan Carr’s continued emphasis on national security, review of the universal service programs, and minimizing regulatory fees and delays in infrastructure deployment. Details on the five items expected to be considered at the Open Meeting are summarized below:

1. Accelerating the Buildout of Submarine Cables – Second Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, OI Docket No. 24-523; MD Docket No. 24-524. This Second Report and Order (2nd R&O) would find that the Cable Landing License Act and Executive Order 10530 authorize the Commission to regulate entities that own and/or operate submarine cable terminal equipment (SLTE) on a submarine cable connecting to the United States. In doing so, the 2nd R&O would grant a blanket license to current and future SLTE owners and operators that are not already licensed under the Commission’s submarine cable regulatory framework, with the exclusion of any entity that would not be qualified to hold a cable landing license under the Commission’s presumptive disqualifying conditions. SLTE owners and operators would be required to comply with routine cable landing license conditions, including filing annual reports and implementing cybersecurity and physical security risk management plans. Entities that are subject to a foreign adversary or that are listed on the Covered List will be required to file an SLTE Foreign Adversary Annual Report. Furthermore, the 2nd R&O would exempt submarine cable licenses from executive branch review (i.e., Team Telecom) where the applicant certifies that 10 national security standards are met. It would also exempt from executive branch review renewals or extensions that have been approved within the last three years.

   The Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2nd FNPRM) seeks comment on whether there should be routine conditions for cable landing licenses and SLTE, including whether any of the 10 national security standards for presumptive exemption from executive branch referral should be applied as a routine condition.

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