[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 189 (Monday, December 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S13192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. Warner):
  S. 2881. A bill to provide greater technical resources to FCC 
Commissioners; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today, along with Senator Warner, to 
introduce legislation that provides greater technical resources to the 
Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission.
  Specifically, this legislation simply proposes modifying existing law 
so that each Commissioner may hire an additional staff member--an 
electrical engineer or computer scientist--to provide in-depth 
technical consultation. Currently, the statute allows each Commissioner 
to appoint only three professional assistants and a secretary. 
Typically, these professional assistants have been legal advisors 
covering the wireline, wireless, and cable/media sectors. However, in 
order to properly regulate communications, Commissioners must be well-
versed in both the legal and technical aspects of the issues.
  With the rapid advancement of technologies and innovation within the 
telecommunications industry, it is imperative that Commissioners have 
the technical expertise on their staff to make well informed regulatory 
decisions. As one Commissioner recently remarked, ``not one of us is an 
engineer. Do you really want us making these highly technical 
decisions?'' We should not expect every Commissioner to be an engineer, 
but having one on staff is prudent. Having both technical and legal 
advisors provides the requisite complement of staff experience for the 
Commissioners to properly address increasingly complex technical and 
legal matters.
  While the Office of Engineering and Technology, OET, has been and 
will continue to be a valuable resource, there has been concern in the 
technical community about the depletion of engineering expertise at the 
Commission. From 1995 to 2001, the FCC's engineering staff dropped by 
more than 20 percent. And at the time, more than 40 percent of the 
engineering staff were to be eligible for retirement between 2001 and 
2005. More recently, the FCC's Managing Director has identified that 
the Commission has a shortage of network engineers.
  In addition, several engineering membership and standards bodies have 
weighed in voicing concern about the lack of technical depth at the 
FCC. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE, the 
largest technical professional organization in the world, sent a letter 
in June of 2008 to then-Chairman Martin writing ``despite the generally 
excellent nature of its internal staff, given all of the technical 
issues within the FCC's jurisdiction, it may be prudent to seek means 
to supplement the internal technical capabilities of the Commission.'' 
The Society of Broadcast Engineers has outlined that one of its 
legislative goals for 2009-10 is ``to promote the maintenance or 
increase of technical expertise within the FCC to ensure that decision-
making by the FCC is based on technical investigation, studies and 
evaluation rather than political expenditures.'' I would like to thank 
these two organizations for supporting this beneficial legislation.
  This bill takes a step towards properly addressing a glaring 
deficiency by ensuring each Commissioner has a technical expert on 
staff to provide individual technical advisement. This is absolutely 
critical given how rapidly technologies are changing and the 
implications that regulation could have on the underlying technical 
catalysts of innovation. That is why I sincerely hope that my 
colleagues join Senator Warner and me in supporting this critical 
legislation.

                          ____________________