[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11325]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 A BILL TO IMPROVE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND OVERALL DECISION-MAKING AT 
     THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE BARTON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 30, 2009

  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, today I, along with Mr. Stearns, 
introduce legislation designed to reform some of the Federal 
Communications Commission's byzantine regulatory processes. As the pace 
of competition and technological change increases in our country's 
communications markets, sound decision-making at the FCC and faith in 
how it makes those decisions become all the more important. Not only 
are the issues far more complex, they affect far more Americans and 
American businesses than ever before. The bill would do much to improve 
the quality of the FCC's decisions and the country's trust in the 
agency.
  First, the bill would codify the not-so-radical notion that the FCC 
should let the public see proposed rules before it adopts them, and 
should provide everyone with a realistic amount of time to comment. If 
the FCC expects the American people and the regulated community to 
respect its decisions, I don't think it is too much to ask the FCC to 
show some respect for them in return. Not only will this improve 
everyone's confidence in the FCC's decisions, it will improve the 
decisions themselves, both because the agency will be forced to exert 
more rigor in developing policy, and because the public and the 
regulated community can often be the source of the best ideas. Secrecy 
breeds both inefficiency and distrust, and the FCC already has enough 
of both. Thus, the bill requires the FCC to provide at least 30 days 
for comments and 30 days for replies on published language of proposed 
rules.
  Letting the sun shine in and the public have a say on what they see 
won't be worth much unless the commissioners are provided a reasonable 
amount of time to review the comments and evaluate any proposed 
decision document. The bill therefore requires at least 30 days after 
the submission of reply comments, as well as an adequate amount of time 
for Commission review of a draft document, before the FCC renders a 
decision.
  Nor is it unreasonable for those waiting on a decision to know when 
resolution will come, whether in their favor or against. In a rapidly 
evolving market, particularly in difficult economic times, uncertainty 
itself can be one of the greatest obstacles to investment and business 
planning. Consequently, the bill requires the FCC to set deadlines for 
action on the various types of decisions it makes.
  And when the Commission adopts a decision, the text of that decision 
should march quickly into the public realm. The longer it takes for 
that language to come, the more it begins to look like the decision was 
not really made when the FCC said it was, but rather ironed out later 
through last-minute, back-room deals. Guilty or not, the FCC is widely 
suspected of changing its mind between decision and regulation. Under 
the bill, the FCC would have 30 days from adoption of a policy to 
release the actual text of the decision.
  Statistics also are becoming increasingly important. The only reason 
for regulation should be a failure in the marketplace, and the American 
people deserve more than vague assertions from regulators that a rule 
is necessary. The bill therefore requires the FCC to publish a schedule 
of all its statistical reports, both to ensure that those reports are 
actually issued regularly and so that everyone can know when.
  Transparency and good management should not be partisan issues, and I 
hope all my colleagues will join us in support of this legislation. I 
look forward to working with them, with the industry, with the public 
interest community, and with the FCC to help make commission decisions 
as well-crafted and unassailable as possible.

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