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The 13 Democratic Reps on the House Communications Subcommittee accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai of trying to evade congressional oversight of his agency. The Reps sent a letter to Chairman Pai calling him out for failing to respond to oversight letters or fully answering questions during congressional testimony. “While we appreciate your continued willingness to testify before our Committee, we are concerned that you have been unable to give complete responses to verbal questions, questions for the record or oversight letters from our members,” the Reps wrote.

The Senate Banking Committee rebuked President Donald Trump's efforts to ease sanctions on the Chinese telecom firm ZTE, which the intelligence community and trade regulators have warned poses a national security risk for the U.S.  The committee approved an amendment in an overwhelming and bipartisan 23-2 vote that would block President Trump from easing sanctions on ZTE without first certifying to Congress that the company is complying with US law.

The Federal Communications Commission will be restarting the informal 180-day shot clock on its review of the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger after it reviews the latest and information from the most recent filing. It signaled it had been waiting to consolidate Sinclair's various re-filings and tweaks to the deal, and is doing that, but is also going to seek even more info on top-four market station ownership requests. That public notice signals the commission has what is expected to be essentially the final version of the deal, though still with questions about this latest iteration.