Policyband Special Report: Exclusive Interview with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr

President Trump's communications point man breaks out his fall agenda

In an interview, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr outlines his policy agenda for the balance of 2025 and beyond, highlighted by his Build America Agenda, the effort to purge deadwood regulations, and the need to safeguard U.S. national security interests against foreign adversaries by withdrawing recognition of China-linked Bad Labs that approve electronics used in U.S. markets. Carr also offered his take on the impact of EchoStar's recent spectrum sales to AT&T and SpaceX/Starlink, Nexstar's announced purchase of TEGNA, and his effort to neutralize contraband cell phones in state prisons.

The interview was conducted in Carr's office in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025 with Policyband editor Ted Hearn.

Q: Where do things stand in terms of ushering in a second GPS/PNT as a backup?

Carr: This was an issue we flagged early on where we wanted to make sure that the United States had a GPS backup or potentially a system of systems to complement the existing GPS regime. It's something that frankly President Trump led on during the first administration. And the need to have that type of a system has only grown more urgent recently. We just had an incident where the president of the European Commission had the GPS in her plane jammed, which could have led to catastrophic consequences. So this continues to be a priority of mine. We haven't made a decision on timing, but I do think we need to continue to move forward to support the development of either one or many alternate systems.

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The full interview with Chairman Carr is available here. Reposted with permission from Policyband.