II 111th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3042 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.

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.