[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3042 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3042

   To provide for a study by the National Academy of Sciences on the 
   technical policy decisions and technical personnel at the Federal 
                       Communications Commission.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 25, 2010

Ms. Snowe (for herself and Mr. Kaufman) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide for a study by the National Academy of Sciences on the 
   technical policy decisions and technical personnel at the Federal 
                       Communications Commission.

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

SECTION 1. TECHNICAL POLICY AND PERSONNEL STUDY.

    (a) Study.--
            (1) Requirement.--The Chairman of the Federal 
        Communications Commission (hereafter in this Act referred to as 
        the ``Commission'') shall enter into an arrangement with the 
        National Academy of Sciences to complete a study of the 
        technical policy decisionmaking and the technical personnel at 
        the Commission.
            (2) Contents.--The study required under paragraph (1) 
        shall--
                    (A) review technical policy decision making of the 
                Commission, including if the Commission has the 
                adequate resources and processes in place to properly 
                evaluate and account for the technical aspects and 
                impact of the Commission's regulatory rulemaking;
                    (B) review--
                            (i) the timeliness of the rulemaking 
                        process utilized by the Commission; and
                            (ii) the impact of regulatory delay on 
                        telecommunications innovation;
                    (C) based upon the review undertaken pursuant to 
                subparagraph (B), make recommendations for the 
                Commission to streamline its rulemaking process;
                    (D) evaluate the current staffing levels and skill 
                sets of technical personnel at the Commission to 
                determine if such staffing levels and skill sets are 
                aligned with the current and future needs of the 
                Commission, as well as with current and future issues 
                that come or may come under the jurisdiction of the 
                Commission;
                    (E) examine the current technical staff and 
                engineering recruiting procedures at the Commission and 
                make recommendations on how the Commission can improve 
                its efforts to hire and retain engineers and other 
                technical staff members;
                    (F) examine--
                            (i) the reliance of the Commission on 
                        external contractors in the development of 
                        policy and in evaluating the technical aspects 
                        of services, devices, and issues that arise 
                        under the jurisdiction of the Commission; and
                            (ii) the potential costs and benefits of 
                        the development of ``in-house'' resources to 
                        perform the duties that are currently being 
                        outsourced to external contractors; and
                    (G) compare the decisionmaking process of the 
                Commission with the decisionmaking process used by 
                similar regulatory authorities in other industrialized 
                countries, including the European Union, Japan, Canada, 
                Australia, and the United Kingdom.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Commission shall transmit a report describing the 
results of the study and recommendations required by subsection (a) to 
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 
and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
Representatives.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Chairman of the Commission for carrying out this 
section $1,000,000 for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
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