[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16622-16623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      OBJECTION TO FCC NOMINATIONS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I intend to object to proceeding to 
the nomination of Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai to be commissioners 
on the Federal Communications Commission.
  I will object to proceeding to the nomination because the FCC 
continues to stonewall a document request I submitted to the FCC over 6 
months ago on April 27, 2011, regarding their actions related to 
LightSquared and Harbinger Capital. Since then, I have repeated my 
request to the FCC through letters I sent on July 5 and September 8 and 
the FCC continues to deny my request for documents.
  During the course of my correspondence with the FCC, the FCC has made 
it clear that it will not voluntarily turn over documents to the 99.6 
percent of the Members of Congress and Senators who do not chair a 
committee with direct jurisdiction over the FCC. As I said in my 
September 8, 2011, letter their actions are misguided and 
unsupportable.
  It not only sets a dangerous precedent for Federal agency to 
unilaterally set the rules on how it engages with

[[Page 16623]]

 Congress it also prevents any meaningful ability for the vast majority 
of Congress to inform themselves of how an agency works.
  Several months ago, I had to take similar action when I supported 
Senator Chambliss' hold of James Cole's nomination to be Deputy 
Attorney General in order to get documents from the Department of 
Justice. In the end, the documents we uncovered shed light on the 
Department's actions regarding Operation Fast and Furious and the 
murder of Agent Brian Terry.
  I strongly believe that it is critical for Congress to have access to 
documents in order to conduct vigorous and independent oversight. It is 
unfortunate that this administration, which has pledged to be the most 
transparent in history, disagrees. As long as they continue to do so, I 
will be forced to take steps like this in order to ensure that Congress 
receives a complete picture of this administration's actions.

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