[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4167 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4167

    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to authorize 3 or more 
    Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission to hold 
      nonpublic collaborative discussions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 1, 2009

  Mr. Stupak introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to authorize 3 or more 
    Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission to hold 
      nonpublic collaborative discussions, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Communications Commission 
Collaboration Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission 
        (in this section referred to as the ``Commission''), past and 
        present, have stated that they support the intent of section 
        552b of title 5, United States Code, but that its 
        implementation has hindered the Commission's ability to have a 
        substantive exchange of ideas and hold collective deliberations 
        on issues pending before the Commission.
            (2) Congress's principal purpose in creating a multimember 
        agency is to obtain the benefits of collegial decisionmaking by 
        the agency's members, who bring to the decisionmaking process 
        different philosophical perspectives, experiences, and areas of 
        expertise.
            (3) Commissioners have relied primarily on an inefficient 
        combination of written messages, communications among staff, 
        and a series of meetings restricted to 2 Commissioners at each 
        such meeting to discuss complex telecommunications matters 
        pending before the Commission.
            (4) Extensive use of such methods of communication has 
        harmed collegiality and cooperation at the Commission.
            (5) Numerous regulatory matters have been pending before 
        the Commission for years, and continued inaction on these 
        issues has the potential to hinder innovation and private 
        investment in the domestic communications industry.
            (6) The Commission must be able to work more 
        collaboratively and efficiently than in the past to meet the 
        current challenge of expanding broadband Internet access to the 
        extent necessary to serve the business, educational, health, 
        and cultural needs of all Americans.

SEC. 3. NONPUBLIC COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSIONS OF THE FEDERAL 
              COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION.

    Section 4 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 154) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(p) Nonpublic Collaborative Discussions.--
            ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 552b of title 5, 
        United States Code, 3 or more Commissioners may hold a meeting 
        that is closed to the public to discuss official business if--
                    ``(A) a vote or any other agency action, as such 
                term is defined in section 551(13) of title 5, United 
                States Code, is not taken at such meeting;
                    ``(B) each person present at such meeting is a 
                Commissioner or an employee of the Commission;
                    ``(C) for each political party of which any 
                Commissioner is a member, at least 1 Commissioner who 
                is a member of such respective political party is 
                present at such meeting, and, if any Commissioner has 
                no political party affiliation, at least one 
                unaffiliated Commissioner is present at such meeting; 
                and
                    ``(D) an attorney from the Office of General 
                Counsel of the Commission is present at such meeting.
            ``(2) Disclosure of nonpublic collaborative discussions.--
        Not later than 5 days after the conclusion of a meeting held 
        under paragraph (1), the Commission shall publish on its Web 
        site a disclosure of such meeting, including--
                    ``(A) a list of the persons who attended such 
                meeting; and
                    ``(B) a summary of the matters discussed at such 
                meeting, except for such matters as the Commission 
                determines may be withheld under section 552b(c) of 
                title 5, United States Code.
            ``(3) Preservation of open meetings requirements for agency 
        action.--Nothing in this subsection shall limit the 
        applicability of section 552b of title 5, United States Code, 
        with respect to a meeting of Commissioners other than that 
        described in paragraph (1).
            ``(4) Sunset.--This subsection shall cease to be effective 
        5 years after the date of enactment of the Federal 
        Communications Commission Collaboration Act.''.
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