[House Report 114-305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


114th Congress    }                                     {       Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session      }                                     {      114-305

======================================================================



 
      FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION PROCESS REFORM ACT OF 2015

                                _______
                                

October 22, 2015.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

  Mr. Upton, from the Committee on Energy and Commerce, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                            DISSENTING VIEWS

                        [To accompany H.R. 2583]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Energy and Commerce, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 2583) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to 
provide for greater transparency and efficiency in the 
procedures followed by the Federal Communications Commission, 
and for other purposes, having considered the same, report 
favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill 
as amended do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose and Summary..............................................     7
Background and Need for Legislation..............................     8
Hearings.........................................................    10
Committee Consideration..........................................    11
Committee Votes..................................................    11
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................    16
Statement of General Performance Goals and Objectives............    16
New Budget Authority, Entitlement Authority, and Tax Expenditures    16
Earmark, Limited Tax Benefits, and Limited Tariff Benefits.......    16
Committee Cost Estimate..........................................    16
Congressional Budget Office Estimate.............................    16
Federal Mandates Statement.......................................    19
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................    19
Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings..............................    19
Advisory Committee Statement.....................................    19
Applicability to Legislative Branch..............................    20
Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation...................    20
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............    29
Dissenting Views.................................................    40

    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

  This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Communications Commission 
Process Reform Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FCC PROCESS REFORM.

  (a) In General.--Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 13. TRANSPARENCY AND EFFICIENCY.

  ``(a) Initial Rulemaking and Inquiry.--
          ``(1) Rulemaking.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        the enactment of the Federal Communications Commission Process 
        Reform Act of 2015, the Commission shall complete a rulemaking 
        proceeding and adopt procedural changes to its rules to 
        maximize opportunities for public participation and efficient 
        decisionmaking.
          ``(2) Requirements for rulemaking.--The rules adopted under 
        paragraph (1) shall--
                  ``(A) set minimum comment periods for comment and 
                reply comment, subject to a determination by the 
                Commission that good cause exists for departing from 
                such minimum comment periods, for--
                          ``(i) significant regulatory actions, as 
                        defined in Executive Order No. 12866; and
                          ``(ii) all other rulemaking proceedings;
                  ``(B) establish policies concerning the submission of 
                extensive new comments, data, or reports towards the 
                end of the comment period;
                  ``(C) establish policies regarding treatment of 
                comments, ex parte communications, and data or reports 
                (including statistical reports and reports to Congress) 
                submitted after the comment period to ensure that the 
                public has adequate notice of and opportunity to 
                respond to such submissions before the Commission 
                relies on such submissions in any order, decision, 
                report, or action;
                  ``(D) establish procedures for, not later than 14 
                days after the end of each quarter of a calendar year 
                (or more frequently, as the Commission considers 
                appropriate), publishing on the Internet website of the 
                Commission and submitting to Congress a report that 
                contains--
                          ``(i) the status of open rulemaking 
                        proceedings and proposed orders, decisions, 
                        reports, or actions on circulation for review 
                        by the Commissioners, including which 
                        Commissioners have not cast a vote on an order, 
                        decision, report, or action that has been on 
                        circulation for more than 60 days;
                          ``(ii) for the petitions, applications, 
                        complaints, and other requests for action by 
                        the Commission that were pending at the 
                        Commission on the last day of such quarter (or 
                        more frequent period, as the case may be)--
                                  ``(I) the number of such requests, 
                                broken down by the bureau primarily 
                                responsible for action and, for each 
                                bureau, the type of request (such as a 
                                petition, application, or complaint); 
                                and
                                  ``(II) information regarding the 
                                amount of time for which such requests 
                                have been pending, broken down as 
                                described in subclause (I); and
                          ``(iii) a list of the congressional 
                        investigations of the Commission that were 
                        pending on the last day of such quarter (or 
                        more frequent period, as the case may be) and 
                        the cost of such investigations, individually 
                        and in the aggregate;
                  ``(E) establish deadlines (relative to the date of 
                filing) for--
                          ``(i) in the case of a petition for a 
                        declaratory ruling under section 1.2 of title 
                        47, Code of Federal Regulations, issuing a 
                        public notice of such petition;
                          ``(ii) in the case of a petition for 
                        rulemaking under section 1.401 of such title, 
                        issuing a public notice of such petition; and
                          ``(iii) in the case of a petition for 
                        reconsideration under section 1.106 or 1.429 of 
                        such title or an application for review under 
                        section 1.115 of such title, issuing a public 
                        notice of a decision on the petition or 
                        application by the Commission or under 
                        delegated authority (as the case may be);
                  ``(F) establish guidelines (relative to the date of 
                filing) for the disposition of petitions filed under 
                section 1.2 of such title;
                  ``(G) establish procedures for the inclusion of the 
                specific language of the proposed rule or the proposed 
                amendment of an existing rule in a notice of proposed 
                rulemaking; and
                  ``(H) require notices of proposed rulemaking and 
                orders adopting a rule or amending an existing rule 
                that--
                          ``(i) create (or propose to create) a program 
                        activity to contain performance measures for 
                        evaluating the effectiveness of the program 
                        activity; and
                          ``(ii) substantially change (or propose to 
                        substantially change) a program activity to 
                        contain--
                                  ``(I) performance measures for 
                                evaluating the effectiveness of the 
                                program activity as changed (or 
                                proposed to be changed); or
                                  ``(II) a finding that existing 
                                performance measures will effectively 
                                evaluate the program activity as 
                                changed (or proposed to be changed).
          ``(3) Inquiry.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
        enactment of the Federal Communications Commission Process 
        Reform Act of 2015, the Commission shall complete an inquiry to 
        seek public comment on whether and how the Commission should--
                  ``(A) establish procedures for allowing a bipartisan 
                majority of Commissioners to place an order, decision, 
                report, or action on the agenda of an open meeting;
                  ``(B) establish procedures for informing all 
                Commissioners of a reasonable number of options 
                available to the Commission for resolving a petition, 
                complaint, application, rulemaking, or other 
                proceeding;
                  ``(C) establish procedures for ensuring that all 
                Commissioners have adequate time, prior to being 
                required to decide a petition, complaint, application, 
                rulemaking, or other proceeding (including at a meeting 
                held pursuant to section 5(d)), to review the proposed 
                Commission decision document, including the specific 
                language of any proposed rule or any proposed amendment 
                of an existing rule;
                  ``(D) establish deadlines (relative to the date of 
                filing) for disposition of applications for a license 
                under section 1.913 of title 47, Code of Federal 
                Regulations;
                  ``(E) assign resources needed in order to meet the 
                deadlines described in subparagraph (D), including 
                whether the Commission's ability to meet such deadlines 
                would be enhanced by assessing a fee from applicants 
                for such a license; and
                  ``(F) publish each order, decision, report, or action 
                not later than 30 days after the date of the adoption 
                of such order, decision, report, or action.
          ``(4) Data for performance measures.--The Commission shall 
        develop a performance measure or proposed performance measure 
        required by this subsection to rely, where possible, on data 
        already collected by the Commission.
          ``(5) GAO audit.--Not less frequently than every 6 months, 
        the Comptroller General of the United States shall audit the 
        cost estimates provided by the Commission under paragraph 
        (2)(D)(iii) during the preceding 6-month period.
  ``(b) Periodic Review.--On the date that is 5 years after the 
completion of the rulemaking proceeding under subsection (a)(1), and 
every 5 years thereafter, the Commission shall initiate a new 
rulemaking proceeding to continue to consider such procedural changes 
to its rules as may be in the public interest to maximize opportunities 
for public participation and efficient decisionmaking.
  ``(c) Nonpublic Collaborative Discussions.--
          ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 552b of title 5, 
        United States Code, a bipartisan majority of Commissioners may 
        hold a meeting that is closed to the public to discuss official 
        business if--
                  ``(A) a vote or any other agency action is not taken 
                at such meeting;
                  ``(B) each person present at such meeting is a 
                Commissioner, an employee of the Commission, a member 
                of a joint board or conference established under 
                section 410, or a person on the staff of such a joint 
                board or conference or of a member of such a joint 
                board or conference; and
                  ``(C) an attorney from the Office of General Counsel 
                of the Commission is present at such meeting.
          ``(2) Disclosure of nonpublic collaborative discussions.--Not 
        later than 2 business days after the conclusion of a meeting 
        held under paragraph (1), the Commission shall publish a 
        disclosure of such meeting, including--
                  ``(A) a list of the persons who attended such 
                meeting; and
                  ``(B) a summary of the matters discussed at such 
                meeting, except for such matters as the Commission 
                determines may be withheld under section 552b(c) of 
                title 5, United States Code.
          ``(3) Preservation of open meetings requirements for agency 
        action.--Nothing in this subsection shall limit the 
        applicability of section 552b of title 5, United States Code, 
        with respect to a meeting of Commissioners other than that 
        described in paragraph (1).
  ``(d) Publication of Documents in Advance of FCC Voting.--
          ``(1) In general.--The Commission may not adopt any order, 
        decision, report, or action by vote of the Commission, unless 
        the Chairman causes the Commission to publish on the Internet 
        website of the Commission the text of such order, decision, 
        report, or action--
                  ``(A) not later than 24 hours after the time such 
                text is placed on circulation for review by the 
                Commissioners; or
                  ``(B) not later than 21 days before the date on which 
                the vote is to occur.
          ``(2) Text to be published; effect.--The text published 
        pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be the text intended at the 
        time of the publishing to be subject to a vote. Nothing in this 
        subsection may be construed to prevent the Commission from 
        making changes to the text after the publishing.
          ``(3) Exception.--This subsection shall not apply to a 
        portion of any order, decision, report, or action if the 
        publishing of such portion is likely to lead to a result 
        described in a paragraph of section 552b(c) of title 5, United 
        States Code.
          ``(4) Not agency action.--Publication pursuant to this 
        subsection shall not constitute `agency action' as defined in 
        section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
  ``(e) Timely Availability of Changes to Rules of the Commission.--Not 
later than 24 hours after adopting a provision that will appear in the 
Code of Federal Regulations, or an amendment to or repeal of a 
provision that appears in the Code of Federal Regulations, the 
Commission shall publish on the Internet website of the Commission the 
text of the provision adopted or repealed, or the text indicating how 
the provision is being amended, as the case may be.
  ``(f) Access to Certain Information on Commission's Website.--The 
Commission shall provide direct access from the homepage of its website 
to--
          ``(1) detailed information regarding--
                  ``(A) the budget of the Commission for the current 
                fiscal year;
                  ``(B) the appropriations for the Commission for such 
                fiscal year; and
                  ``(C) the total number of full-time equivalent 
                employees of the Commission; and
          ``(2) the performance plan most recently made available by 
        the Commission under section 1115(b) of title 31, United States 
        Code.
  ``(g) Internet Publication of Certain FCC Policies and Procedures.--
The chairman of the Commission shall--
          ``(1) publish on the Internet website of the Commission any 
        policies or procedures of the Commission that--
                  ``(A) are established by the chairman; and
                  ``(B) relate to the functioning of the Commission or 
                the handling of the agenda of the Commission; and
          ``(2) update such publication not later than 48 hours after 
        the chairman makes changes to any such policies or procedures.
  ``(h) Federal Register Publication.--
          ``(1) In general.--In the case of any document adopted by the 
        Commission that the Commission is required, under any provision 
        of law, to publish in the Federal Register, the Commission 
        shall, not later than the date described in paragraph (2), 
        complete all Commission actions necessary for such document to 
        be so published.
          ``(2) Date described.--The date described in this paragraph 
        is the earlier of--
                  ``(A) the day that is 45 days after the date of the 
                release of the document; or
                  ``(B) the day by which such actions must be completed 
                to comply with any deadline under any other provision 
                of law.
          ``(3) No effect on deadlines for publication in other form.--
        In the case of a deadline that does not specify that the form 
        of publication is publication in the Federal Register, the 
        Commission may comply with such deadline by publishing the 
        document in another form. Such other form of publication does 
        not relieve the Commission of any Federal Register publication 
        requirement applicable to such document, including the 
        requirement of paragraph (1).
  ``(i) Consumer Complaint Database.--
          ``(1) In general.--In evaluating and processing consumer 
        complaints, the Commission shall present information about such 
        complaints in a publicly available, searchable database on its 
        website that--
                  ``(A) facilitates easy use by consumers; and
                  ``(B) to the extent practicable, is sortable and 
                accessible by--
                          ``(i) the date of the filing of the 
                        complaint;
                          ``(ii) the topic of the complaint;
                          ``(iii) the party complained of; and
                          ``(iv) other elements that the Commission 
                        considers in the public interest.
          ``(2) Duplicative complaints.--In the case of multiple 
        complaints arising from the same alleged misconduct, the 
        Commission shall be required to include only information 
        concerning one such complaint in the database described in 
        paragraph (1).
  ``(j) Form of Publication.--
          ``(1) In general.--In complying with a requirement of this 
        section to publish a document, the Commission shall publish 
        such document on its website, in addition to publishing such 
        document in any other form that the Commission is required to 
        use or is permitted to and chooses to use.
          ``(2) Exception.--The Commission shall by rule establish 
        procedures for redacting documents required to be published by 
        this section so that the published versions of such documents 
        do not contain--
                  ``(A) information the publication of which would be 
                detrimental to national security, homeland security, 
                law enforcement, or public safety; or
                  ``(B) information that is proprietary or 
                confidential.
  ``(k) Transparency Relating to Performance in Meeting FOIA 
Requirements.--The Commission shall take additional steps to inform the 
public about its performance and efficiency in meeting the disclosure 
and other requirements of section 552 of title 5, United States Code 
(commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act), including by 
doing the following:
          ``(1) Publishing on the Commission's website the Commission's 
        logs for tracking, responding to, and managing requests 
        submitted under such section, including the Commission's fee 
        estimates, fee categories, and fee request determinations.
          ``(2) Releasing to the public all decisions made by the 
        Commission (including decisions made by the Commission's 
        Bureaus and Offices) granting or denying requests filed under 
        such section, including any such decisions pertaining to the 
        estimate and application of fees assessed under such section.
          ``(3) Publishing on the Commission's website electronic 
        copies of documents released under such section.
          ``(4) Presenting information about the Commission's handling 
        of requests under such section in the Commission's annual 
        budget estimates submitted to Congress and the Commission's 
        annual performance and financial reports. Such information 
        shall include the number of requests under such section the 
        Commission received in the most recent fiscal year, the number 
        of such requests granted and denied, a comparison of the 
        Commission's processing of such requests over at least the 
        previous 3 fiscal years, and a comparison of the Commission's 
        results with the most recent average for the United States 
        Government as published on www.foia.gov.
  ``(l) Prompt Release of Statistical Reports and Reports to 
Congress.--Not later than January 15th of each year, the Commission 
shall identify, catalog, and publish an anticipated release schedule 
for all statistical reports and reports to Congress that are regularly 
or intermittently released by the Commission and will be released 
during such year.
  ``(m) Annual Scorecard Reports.--
          ``(1) In general.--For the 1-year period beginning on January 
        1st of each year, the Commission shall prepare a report on the 
        performance of the Commission in conducting its proceedings and 
        meeting the deadlines established under subsection (a)(2)(E) 
        and the guidelines established under subsection (a)(2)(F).
          ``(2) Contents.--Each report required by paragraph (1) shall 
        contain detailed statistics on such performance, including, 
        with respect to each Bureau of the Commission--
                  ``(A) with respect to each type of filing specified 
                in subsection (a)(2)(E) or (a)(2)(F)--
                          ``(i) the number of filings that were pending 
                        on the last day of the period covered by such 
                        report;
                          ``(ii) the number of filings described in 
                        clause (i) for which each applicable deadline 
                        or guideline established under such subsection 
                        was not met and the average length of time such 
                        filings have been pending; and
                          ``(iii) for filings that were resolved during 
                        such period, the average time between 
                        initiation and resolution and the percentage 
                        for which each applicable deadline or guideline 
                        established under such subsection was met;
                  ``(B) with respect to proceedings before an 
                administrative law judge--
                          ``(i) the number of such proceedings 
                        completed during such period; and
                          ``(ii) the number of such proceedings pending 
                        on the last day of such period; and
                  ``(C) the number of independent studies or analyses 
                published by the Commission during such period.
          ``(3) Publication and submission.--The Commission shall 
        publish and submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of 
        the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 
        Science, and Transportation of the Senate each report required 
        by paragraph (1) not later than the date that is 30 days after 
        the last day of the period covered by such report.
  ``(n) Definitions.--In this section:
          ``(1) Amendment.--The term `amendment' includes, when used 
        with respect to an existing rule, the deletion of such rule.
          ``(2) Bipartisan majority.--The term `bipartisan majority' 
        means, when used with respect to a group of Commissioners, that 
        such group--
                  ``(A) is a group of 3 or more Commissioners; and
                  ``(B) includes, for each political party of which any 
                Commissioner is a member, at least 1 Commissioner who 
                is a member of such political party, and, if any 
                Commissioner has no political party affiliation, at 
                least one unaffiliated Commissioner.
          ``(3) Performance measure.--The term `performance measure' 
        means an objective and quantifiable outcome measure or output 
        measure (as such terms are defined in section 1115 of title 31, 
        United States Code).
          ``(4) Program activity.--The term `program activity' has the 
        meaning given such term in section 1115 of title 31, United 
        States Code, except that such term also includes any annual 
        collection or distribution or related series of collections or 
        distributions by the Commission of an amount that is greater 
        than or equal to $100,000,000.
          ``(5) Other definitions.--The terms `agency action', `ex 
        parte communication', and `rule' have the meanings given such 
        terms in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.''.
  (b) Effective Dates and Implementing Rules.--
          (1) Effective dates.--
                  (A) Nonpublic collaborative discussions.--Subsection 
                (c) of section 13 of the Communications Act of 1934, as 
                added by subsection (a), shall apply beginning on the 
                first date on which all of the procedural changes to 
                the rules of the Federal Communications Commission 
                required by subsection (a)(1) of such section have 
                taken effect.
                  (B) Publication of documents in advance of fcc 
                voting.--Subsection (d) of such section 13 shall apply 
                with respect to an order, decision, report, or action 
                the text of which is placed on circulation after the 
                date that is 90 days after the date of the enactment of 
                this Act.
                  (C) Timely availability of changes to rules of the 
                commission.--Subsection (e) of such section 13 shall 
                apply with respect to a provision, or an amendment to 
                or repeal of a provision, that is adopted after the 
                date that is 30 days after the date of the enactment of 
                this Act.
                  (D) Internet publication of certain fcc policies and 
                procedures.--Subsection (g) of such section 13 shall 
                apply beginning on the date that is 30 days after the 
                date of the enactment of this Act.
                  (E) Report release schedules.--Subsection (l) of such 
                section 13 shall apply with respect to 2016 and any 
                year thereafter.
                  (F) Annual scorecard reports.--Subsection (m) of such 
                section 13 shall apply with respect to 2015 and any 
                year thereafter.
          (2) Rules.--Except as otherwise provided in such section 13, 
        the Federal Communications Commission shall promulgate any 
        rules necessary to carry out such section not later than 1 year 
        after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. CATEGORIZATION OF TCPA INQUIRIES AND COMPLAINTS IN QUARTERLY 
                    REPORT.

  In compiling its quarterly report with respect to informal consumer 
inquiries and complaints, the Federal Communications Commission may not 
categorize an inquiry or complaint with respect to section 227 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227) as being a wireline inquiry 
or complaint or a wireless inquiry or complaint unless the party whose 
conduct is the subject of the inquiry or complaint is a wireline 
carrier or a wireless carrier, respectively.

SEC. 4. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.

  Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall relieve 
the Federal Communications Commission from any obligations under title 
5, United States Code, except where otherwise expressly provided.

SEC. 5. APPLICATION OF ANTIDEFICIENCY ACT TO UNIVERSAL SERVICE PROGRAM.

  Section 302 of Public Law 108 494 (118 Stat. 3998) is amended by 
striking ``December 31, 2016'' each place it appears and inserting 
``December 31, 2020''.

SEC. 6. REPORT ON IMPROVING SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FCC 
                    PROCEEDINGS.

  Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Federal Communications Commission, in consultation with the 
Administrator of the Small Business Administration, shall submit to 
Congress a report on--
          (1) actions that the Commission will take to improve the 
        participation of small businesses in the proceedings of the 
        Commission; and
          (2) recommendations for any legislation that the Commission 
        considers appropriate to improve such participation.

SEC. 7. IDENTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF ITEMS TO BE DECIDED ON 
                    AUTHORITY DELEGATED BY THE COMMISSION.

  (a) In General.--Section 5(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 155(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
  ``(10) Not later than 48 hours before the time when an order, 
decision, report, or action is made or taken pursuant to delegation 
under paragraph (1), such order, decision, report, or action shall be 
identified and briefly described on the Internet website of the 
Commission, unless the authority to which the delegation is made for 
good cause finds that such identification and description are likely to 
lead to a result described in a paragraph of section 552b(c) of title 
5, United States Code. Identification and description pursuant to this 
paragraph shall not constitute `agency action' as defined in section 
551 of title 5, United States Code. This paragraph shall not apply with 
respect to an order, decision, report, or action that--
          ``(A) does not receive a delegated authority number pursuant 
        to the procedures of the Commission;
          ``(B) is made or taken on authority delegated to an 
        administrative law judge; or
          ``(C) is made or taken to address an immediate threat to 
        health or safety that constitutes an emergency requiring an 
        expedited response from the Commission.''.
  (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
with respect to an order, decision, report, or action made or taken 
after the date that is 90 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.

                          Purpose and Summary

    H.R. 2583, Federal Communications Process Reform Act of 
2015 (FCC Process Reform Act) amends the Communications Act of 
1934 to provide for greater transparency and efficiency in the 
procedures followed by the Federal Communications Commission 
(FCC, the Commission, or the Agency) and for other purposes. 
Among other things, the legislation requires the Commission to 
conduct a rulemaking and adopt procedural changes to its rules 
to maximize opportunities for public participation and 
efficient decision-making. The legislation also requires the 
Commission to inject much-needed visibility into its decision-
making procedures.
    The legislation also provides for a bipartisan majority of 
Commissioners to meet in non-public collaborative discussions, 
despite the Government in Sunshine Act, once the rulemaking has 
been implemented.

                  Background and Need for Legislation

    H.R. 2583 is the evolution of a bill that began in the 
112th Congress, H.R. 3309, which ultimately passed the House of 
Representatives by a recorded vote of 247-174.\1\ During the 
113th Congress, as a result of discussion among the Members, 
the Committee substantially revised the bill, resulting in a 
bipartisan bill that passed the House of Representatives 
unanimously.\2\ H.R. 2583, as introduced, is substantially 
similar to H.R. 3675 from the 113th Congress, with changes in 
effective dates. At the full Committee mark-up, the bill was 
amended several times, resulting in the current version 
discussed in this report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\158 Cong. Rec. H1609-H1629 (Federal Communications Commission 
Process Reform Act of 2012 on March 27, 2012).
    \2\159 Cong. Reg. H2280-H2284 (Federal Communications Commission 
Process Reform Act of 2014 on March 11, 2014).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This brief synopsis of the legislation's history 
demonstrates the Committee's ongoing commitment to reforming 
process at the Commission. This legislation is necessary to 
remedy the numerous process failings at the FCC during the 
tenures of both Republican and Democratic chairmen.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\See Section by Section analysis below for a more detailed 
discussion of various process failures at the FCC.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Over the past several years, this Committee, under 
Republican and Democrat leadership, has expressed many concerns 
that the FCC has fallen short in both transparency and 
efficiency. In the 110th Congress, the Committee and its 
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations investigated the 
FCC's procedures, and the Committee ultimately released a 
report documenting abuses at the agency.\4\ Senator 
Rockefeller, then Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, 
also instructed Chairman Genachowski during his nomination 
hearing, ``Fix this agency, or we will fix it for you. Prove to 
us that the FCC is not battered beyond repair.''\5\ In the 
111th Congress, Rep. Barton introduced H.R. 2183, a bill to 
improve public participation and overall decision-making at the 
FCC. In the 112th Congress, Chairman Walden and Rep. Kinzinger 
introduced H.R. 3309 to reform the FCC's procedures, and in the 
113th, Chairman Walden, Rep. Kinzinger, and Ranking Member Anna 
Eshoo together introduced H.R. 3675 to reform the FCC's 
process. These bills were based on multiple Congressional 
hearings and investigations, as well as multiple reports from 
the Government Accountability Office, assessing the 
transparency and fairness of FCC procedures.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\See House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Deception and 
Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin J. 
Martin, 110th Cong. (2008).
    \5\See Opening Statement of Chairman Jay Rockefeller, Nomination 
Hearing, June 16, 2009 at http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/
index.cfm?p=Hearings&ContentRecord_id=bca080f3-15a0-4d05-8abd-
77f5327a2cb7&Statement_id=ac4a336c-ed40-4f57-9600-
6d30f4c11c3f&ContentType_id=14f995b9-dfa5-407a-9d35-
56cc7152a7ed&Group_id=b06c39af-e033-4cba-9221-
de668ca1978a&MonthDisplay=6&YearDisplay=2009.
    \6\See Government Accountability Office Report 10-249, 
``Information Collection and Management at the Federal Communications 
Commission,'' Mar. 2010 at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-249; 
Government Accountability Office Report 10-79, ``FCC Management: 
Improvements Needed in Communication, Decision-Making Processes, and 
Workforce Planning,'' Jan. 2010 at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-
79; Government Accountability Office Report 08-125,``FCC Has Made Some 
Progress in the Management of Its Enforcement Program but Faces 
Limitations, and Additional Actions Are Needed,'' Mar. 2008 at http://
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-125; Government Accountability Office 
Report 07-1046, ``FCC Should Take Steps to Ensure Equal Access to 
Rulemaking Information,'' Sept. 2007 at http://www.gao.gov/products/
GAO-07-1046.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Criticism of the FCC has come from off of the Hill as well. 
In 2008, the National Association of Regulatory Utility 
Commissioners wrote an open letter to President Obama's 
transition team, highlighting the need for structural and 
procedural reforms at the FCC and suggesting thirteen separate 
reforms to consider.\7\ In 2009, then Professor Philip Weiser 
wrote that ``the great weight of opinion is that the FCC has 
always operated in a suboptimal fashion and is in dire need of 
institutional reform.''\8\ And in a 2010 Public Knowledge 
paper, that organization called for a ``shock to the system'' 
and ``a surrender of discretion by FCC leadership and a move 
away from unpredictable and ad hoc decisionmaking.''\9\ The 
paper details a number of reforms similar to those effected by 
this bill, including additional transparency in editorial 
privileges after a Commission vote or identification of items 
delegated to bureaus for decision; self-imposed deadlines for 
Commission action on petitions and other matters; increased 
empowerment of Commission staff; and effective communication 
with the public regarding its internal processes.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\See Letter from Frederick Butler, President, NARUC, to Susan 
Crawford, Visiting Professor, Yale Law School, Obama-Biden Transition 
Team on the FCC (Dec. 12, 2008), available at http://www.naruc.org/
Testimony/08%201212%20RV%20FCC%20Transition%20letter.pdf.
    \8\Philip J. Weiser, ``Institutional Design, FCC Reform, and the 
Hidden Side of the Administrative State,'' 61 Admin. L. Rev. 675 (2009) 
at 677.
    \9\Michael Weinberg and Gigi B. Sohn, An FCC for the Internet Age: 
Recommendations for Reforming the Federal Communications Commission 
(Mar. 5, 2010), available at http://go.usa.gov/PyH.
    \10\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The most telling criticism comes from within the agency 
itself. In 2009, Commissioner Robert McDowell called twice for 
financial and ethics audits of the agency, as well as a review 
of the external communications from the agency.\11\ Chairman 
Julius Genachowski billed regulatory reform a ``top priority'' 
of his Chairmanship\12\ and appointed a Special Counsel for FCC 
Reform ``to ensure high-level attention to this vitally 
important issue.''\13\ Chairman Tom Wheeler also appointed a 
special counsel to review and institute procedural reforms\14\ 
and more recently convened yet another task force to assess the 
decision-making procedures at the agency.\15\ Commissioners 
Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly also have called for multiple 
reforms to improve the transparency and process of the 
agency.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\See Letter from Commissioner Robert M. McDowell to Chairman 
Julius Genachowski (Jul. 20, 2009) at https://apps.fcc.gov/
edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-292122A1.pdf; Letter from Commissioner 
Robert M. McDowell to Acting Chairman Michael J. Copps (Jan. 27, 2009) 
at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-288104A1.pdf.
    \12\Statement from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on the Executive 
Order on Regulatory Reform and Independent Agencies (Jul. 11, 2011) at 
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-308340A1.pdf.
    \13\Letter from Chairman Julius Genachowski to Commissioner Robert 
M. McDowell (Jul. 21, 2009) at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/
attachmatch/DOC-292121A1.pdf. Note that Mary Beth Richards was 
appointed to serve as Special Counsel on FCC Reform not once but twice. 
The first appointment came under Chairman Michael K. Powell. Press 
Release, ``FCC Chairman Michael Powell Designates Special Counsel to 
Spearhead Internal FCC Reform Efforts'' (Feb. 26, 2001) at https://
transition.fcc.gov/Speeches/Powell/Statements/2001/stmkp108.html.
    \14\Press Release, ``FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Announces Staff 
Appointments'' (Nov. 4, 2013) at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/
attachmatch/DOC-323962A1.pdf.
    \15\See Statement of Commissioner Michael O'Rielly on FCC Process 
Reform Task Force (rel. Mar. 19, 2015) at https://apps.fcc.gov/
edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-332610A1.pdf (in response to Chairman 
Wheeler's announcement). The FCC has not released an official press 
release on the task force, but Chairman Wheeler stated in the 
Subcommittee's March 19, 2015 oversight hearing that ``I am going to be 
asking each Commissioner to appoint one staff person to work on a task 
force to be headed by Diane Cornell, who ran our process reform task 
force.'' See Transcript of the Hearing of the Subcommittee on 
Communications & Technology, entitled ``FCC Reauthorization: Oversight 
of the Commission,'' p. 33 at http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/
20150319/103182/HHRG-114-IF16-20150319-SD003.pdf.
    \16\See, e.g., Statement of Commission Ajit Pai on the Release of 
Misleading Incentive Auction Data (May 20, 2015) at https://
apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-333581A1.pdf; FCC Blog Post 
by Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, ``Fixing Flawed and Non-Existent 
`Editorial Privileges''' (Mar. 9, 2015) at https://www.fcc.gov/blog/
fixing-flawed-and-non-existent-editorial-privileges; FCC Blog Post by 
Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, ``Delegated Authority: Serious 
Objections and Solutions'' (Feb. 2, 2015) at https://www.fcc.gov/blog/
delegated-authority-serious-objections-and-solutions; FCC Blog Post by 
Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, ``Update on Advance Posting of 
Commission Meeting Items'' (Jan. 16, 2015) at https://www.fcc.gov/blog/
update-advance-posting-commission-meeting-items; Statement of FCC 
Commissioner Ajit Pai on Calls for the FCC to Preempt State Laws 
Governing Municipalities (Jan. 14, 2015) at https://www.fcc.gov/
document/statement-commissioner-pai-government-run-broadband; Joint 
Statement of Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly on the 
Abandonment of Consensus-Based Decision-Making at the FCC (Dec. 18, 
2014) at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-
331140A1.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Internal efforts at reform have yielded some laudable 
changes, but they have not been enough. The same issues raised 
by then Chairman John Dingell in 1991 continue to plague the 
agency today.\17\ The Committee believes that FCC process can 
be improved only with legislative action.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\See Letter from John D. Dingell, Chairman, Committee on Energy 
and Commerce, to the Honorable Alfred C. Sikes, Chairman, Federal 
Communications Commission (May 21, 1991), quoted in FCC Process Reform: 
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, 112th 
Cong., at 79-81 (May 13, 2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                Hearings

    The Energy and Commerce Committee has held a number of 
hearings in recent Congresses. As noted above, H.R. 2583 was 
preceded by similar bills in the 112th and 113th Congresses.
    In the 113th Congress, the Subcommittee on Communications 
and Technology held a hearing on December 12, 2013, shortly 
after Chairman Wheeler was confirmed as Chairman of the agency. 
Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner 
Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Ajit Pai, and Commissioner 
Michael O'Rielly all provided testimony. The Subcommittee held 
a second hearing, with Chairman Wheeler as the sole witness, on 
May 20, 2014. On September 17, 2014, the Subcommittee also held 
a third hearing focused on the Commission's process and budget 
with testimony from the FCC's Managing Director, Jon Wilkins, 
and the agency's Inspector General, David L. Hunt.
    During the 113th Congress, the Subcommittee also held a 
hearing on H.R. 3675, the predecessor bill to H.R. 2583. On 
July 11, 2013, at a hearing entitled ``Improving FCC Process,'' 
the Subcommittee received testimony from Stuart M. Benjamin, 
Douglas B. Maggs Chair in Law and Associate Dean for Research 
at Duke Law; Larry Downes, Internet industry analyst and 
author; Robert M. McDowell, Former FCC Commissioner and 
Visiting Fellow at Hudson Institute; Randolph J. May, President 
of Free State Foundation; Richard J. Pierce Jr., Lyle T. 
Alverson Professor of Law at George Washington University Law 
School; and James Bradford Ramsay, General Counsel of the 
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
    The 114th Congress continued the efforts of the 113th in 
oversight of the Commission. On March 4, 2015, the Subcommittee 
reviewed the FCC's budget and considered reauthorization during 
a hearing entitled, ``Reauthorization of the Federal 
Communications Commission: The FCC's FY 2016 Budget Request.'' 
At the hearing, the Subcommittee heard testimony from Managing 
Director Jon Wilkins. The Subcommittee held a hearing with 
testimony from all five Commissioners on March 19, 2015, 
entitled ``FCC Reauthorization: Oversight of the Commission.''
    The Subcommittee considered a discussion draft of H.R. 2583 
on April 30, 2015, at a hearing entitled ``FCC Reauthorization: 
Improving Commission Transparency.'' The Subcommittee also 
considered the discussion drafts of H.R. 2589, sponsored by 
Rep. Ellmers, which required the FCC to publish on its Internet 
website changes to the rules of the Commission not later than 
24 hours after adoption; H.R. 2592, sponsored by Rep. 
Kinzinger, which required the FCC to publish on the website of 
the Commission documents to be voted on by the Commission; and 
H.R. 2593, sponsored by Rep. Latta, which required 
identification and description on the FCC website of items to 
be decided on delegated authority. FCC Chairman Wheeler and 
Commissioner O'Rielly testified.
    On May 15, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing entitled 
``FCC Reauthorization: Improving Commission Transparency, Part 
II'' with testimony from Stuart M. Benjamin, Douglas B. Maggs 
Chair in Law and Associate Dean for Research, Duke Law; Robert 
M. McDowell, former FCC Commissioner, Senior Fellow, Hudson 
Institute; and, Randolph J. May, President, Free State 
Foundation. The Subcommittee considered several bills, 
including offered discussion draft sponsored by Rep. Matsui, 
which would require the FCC to submit to Congress a report on 
improving the participation of small businesses in the 
proceedings of the Commission; a discussion draft sponsored by 
Rep. Clarke, which would require the FCC to publish a quarterly 
report on pending requests for action and pending congressional 
investigations of the agency; and a discussion draft sponsored 
by Rep. Loebsack, which would require the FCC to publish its 
internal rules and procedures on the agency's website.

                        Committee Consideration

    On May 20, 2015, the Subcommittee on Communications and 
Technology met in open markup session and forwarded a 
discussion draft entitled ``Federal Communications Commission 
Process Reform Act of 2015,'' without amendment, to the full 
Committee by a voice vote.
    Chairman Walden, together with Rep. Kinzinger, introduced 
H.R. 2583 on May 29, 2015. H.R. 2853 was identical to the 
discussion draft forwarded by the Subcommittee.
    On June 2 and 3, 2015, the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
met in open markup session and ordered H.R. 2583 reported to 
the House, as amended, by a voice vote.

                            Committee Votes

    Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives requires the Committee to list the record votes 
on the motion to report legislation and amendments thereto. A 
motion by Mr. Upton to order H.R. 2583 reported to the House, 
as amended, was agreed to by a voice vote. The following 
reflects the record votes taken during the Committee 
consideration:

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                      Committee Oversight Findings

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee held hearings and made 
findings that are reflected in this report.

         Statement of General Performance Goals and Objectives

    The goal and objective of H.R. 2583 is to provide for 
greater transparency and efficiency in the decision-making 
processes followed by the FCC. This legislation accomplishes 
this by requiring the Commission to complete a rulemaking no 
later than one year after the date of enactment, establishing 
schedules and procedures for processing matters before the 
Commission. The legislation also provides for a bipartisan 
majority of Commissioners to meet in non-public collaborative 
discussions despite the Government in Sunshine Act, once the 
rulemaking has been completed.

   New Budget Authority, Entitlement Authority, and Tax Expenditures

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives, the Committee finds that H.R. 
2583 would result in no new or increased budget authority, 
entitlement authority, or tax expenditures or revenues.

       Earmark, Limited Tax Benefits, and Limited Tariff Benefits

    In compliance with clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI 
of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee 
finds that H.R. 2583 contains no earmarks, limited tax 
benefits, or limited tariff benefits.

                        Committee Cost Estimate

    The Committee adopts as its own the cost estimate prepared 
by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to 
section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

                  Congressional Budget Office Estimate

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the following is the cost estimate 
provided by the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 
402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                Washington, DC, September 14, 2015.
Hon. Fred Upton, Chairman,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 2583, the Federal 
Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2015.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Susan Willie.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.
    Enclosure.

H.R. 2583--Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2015

    Summary: H.R. 2583 would make a number of changes to 
procedures that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
follows in its rulemaking processes. The bill also would 
require the FCC to create a public database of information 
about complaints made by consumers of telecommunications 
services. Finally, the bill would exempt the Universal Service 
Fund (USF) from provisions of the Antideficiency Act through 
December 31, 2020.
    CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2583 would change the 
timing of spending from the USF, which would affect direct 
spending over the 2016-2025 period; therefore, pay-as-you-go 
procedures apply. We estimate, however, that the timing changes 
would net to zero over the ten-year period. Enacting H.R. 2583 
would not affect revenues.
    Further, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2583 to amend 
the FCC's operating procedures would cost $10 million over the 
next five years; such spending would be subject to the 
availability of appropriated funds. Under current law, the FCC 
is authorized to collect fees sufficient to offset the cost of 
its regulatory activities each year. Therefore, CBO estimates 
that the net cost to implement those provisions of H.R. 2583 
would not be significant, assuming annual appropriation actions 
consistent with the agency's authorities.
    H.R. 2583 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined 
in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect 
the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
    If the FCC increases annual fee collections to offset the 
costs of implementing its additional regulatory activities, the 
bill would impose a private-sector mandate on some commercial 
entities regulated by the FCC. Based on information from the 
FCC, CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would be small, 
and fall well below the annual threshold established in UMRA 
for private-sector mandates ($154 million in 2015, adjusted 
annually for inflation).
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of H.R. 2583 is shown in the following table. 
The costs of this legislation falls within budget function 370 
(commerce and housing credit).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                    By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                                                       -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                         2016   2017   2018   2019   2020   2021    2022     2023     2024    2025  2016-2020  2016-2025
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               CHANGES IN DIRECT SPENDINGa
 
Estimated Budget Authority............................      0      0      0      0      0      0        0        0        0      0         0          0
Estimated Outlays.....................................      0      0    151    115     26      6     -158     -118      -22      0       292         0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
aCBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2583 also would have an insignificant net effect on spending subject to appropriation.

    Basis of estimate: For this estimate, CBO assumes that the 
bill will be enacted near the beginning of fiscal year 2016.

Direct spending

    H.R. 2583 would exempt the USF from provisions of the 
Antideficiency Act through December 31, 2020. Created by the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996, the USF redistributes income 
from interstate telecommunications carriers to other carriers 
that provide services to high-cost areas, low-income 
households, schools, libraries, and nonprofit health care 
providers in rural areas. The cash flows from the USF appear in 
the budget as revenues (for fund collections) and direct 
spending (for amounts distributed from the fund).
    Under current law, the USF has a temporary exemption from 
the Antideficiency Act that will expire at the end of calendar 
year 2016. Spending for one of the fund's initiatives, the 
Schools and Libraries program is affected by that exemption. 
When the USF receives and approves an application for funding 
from the Schools and Libraries program, it obligates funds to 
be paid to the recipient pending compliance with certain grant 
conditions. While the exemption is in place, the USF is able to 
obligate funds for schools and libraries without having 
sufficient amounts available to meet those obligations. Without 
the exemption, the Schools and Libraries program would be 
unable to obligate funds until sufficient resources to meet 
those obligations became available. This program, which 
distributes funds to eligible institutions to provide 
affordable Internet and telecommunications services, spent $2.3 
billion for those purposes in fiscal year 2014. By extending 
the exemption through 2020, H.R. 2583 would continue to allow 
the program to obligate and spend funds faster than it would 
without the exemption.
    CBO does not expect that the USF would collect or spend 
more as a result of the exemption; rather, we estimate that the 
timing of the spending would change. Specifically, CBO 
estimates that under the exemption, spending patterns would 
shift so that funds would be spent more quickly relative to the 
current-law baseline estimates during the period the proposed 
exemption would be in force. However, spending in the years 
immediately after the expiration of the proposed exemption 
would decrease, relative to the baseline, because of that 
shift. Thus, CBO estimates that under the bill direct spending 
would increase by $292 million over the 2016-2020 period; but 
over the 2016-2025 period there would be no change in direct 
spending.

Spending subject to appropriation

    H.R. 2583 would require the FCC to adopt new rules related 
to the agency's decision-making processes and to present 
certain information in greater detail on the agency's website. 
Based on information from the FCC, CBO estimates that 
implementing those provisions would cost about $10 million over 
the 2016-2020 period for additional administrative and 
information technology costs. However, the FCC is authorized to 
collect fees sufficient to offset its regulatory costs each 
year; therefore, CBO estimates that the net cost to implement 
H.R. 2583 would not be significant over the ten-year period, 
assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority.
    Pay-As-You-Go considerations: The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go 
Act of 2010 establishes budget-reporting and enforcement 
procedures for legislation affecting direct spending or 
revenues. The net changes in outlays that are subject to those 
pay-as-you-go procedures are shown in the following table.

         CBO ESTIMATE OF PAY-AS-YOU-GO EFFECTS FOR H.R. 2583, AS ORDERED REPORTED BY THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE ON JUNE 3, 2015
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                   By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                                                     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                       2016   2017   2018   2019   2020   2021    2022      2023     2024    2025   2016-2020  2016-2025
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               CHANGES IN DIRECT SPENDING
 
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Impact......................      0      0    151    115     26      6      -158      -118     -22       0       292          0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated impact on state, local, and tribal governments: 
H.R. 2583 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in 
UMRA and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or 
tribal governments.
    Estimated impact on the private sector: If the FCC 
increases annual fee collections to offset the costs of 
implementing its additional regulatory activities, the bill 
would increase the cost of an existing mandate to pay those 
fees by some commercial entities regulated by the agency. The 
FCC is authorized to collect fees sufficient to offset its 
regulatory costs each year, subject to its annual 
appropriation. Based on information from the FCC, CBO estimates 
that the cost of the mandate would be small--no more than about 
$10 million over the next five years--and fall well below the 
annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector 
mandates ($154 million in 2015, adjusted annually for 
inflation).
    Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Susan Willie; Impact 
on state, local, and tribal governments: Melissa Merrell; 
Impact on the private sector: Marin Burnett.
    Estimate approved by: H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                       Federal Mandates Statement

    The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of Federal 
mandates prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office pursuant to section 423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform 
Act.

                    Duplication of Federal Programs

    No provision of H.R. 2583 establishes or reauthorizes a 
program of the Federal Government known to be duplicative of 
another Federal program, a program that was included in any 
report from the Government Accountability Office to Congress 
pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program 
related to a program identified in the most recent Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance.

                  Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings

    The Committee estimates that enacting H.R. 2583 
specifically directs to be completed one rule making within the 
meaning of 5 U.S.C. 551, as specified in Section 2(a).

                      Advisory Committee Statement

    No advisory committees within the meaning of section 5(b) 
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act were created by this 
legislation.

                  Applicability to Legislative Branch

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not relate to 
the terms and conditions of employment or access to public 
services or accommodations within the meaning of section 
102(b)(3) of the Congressional Accountability Act.

             Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation


Section 1. Short title

    Section 1 provides that the Act may be cited as the 
``Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 
2015.''

Section 2. FCC process reform

    Section 2(a). Section 2(a) inserts after section 12 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 a new section, section 13, 
Transparency and Efficiency.
            Section 13(a) Initial rulemaking and inquiry
    This subsection requires the FCC to conduct a notice and 
comment rulemaking and adopt rules to (1) set minimum comment 
and reply comment periods for rulemaking proceedings; (2) 
establish policies concerning extensive comments toward the end 
of a comment period; (3) establish policies to ensure that the 
public has time to review material submitted in a proceeding 
after the comment cycle has closed; (4) publish the status of 
open rulemakings as well as list the draft items the 
Commissioners are currently considering; (5) establish 
deadlines for action on certain filings to the Commission and 
its bureaus; (6) establish guidelines for the disposition of 
petitions for declaratory ruling; (7) establish procedures for 
including the specific text of proposed rules in Commission 
Notice of Proposed Rule Makings (NPRM); and (8) to require the 
development of performance measures for FCC program activities, 
defined as each FCC program listed in the Federal budget or 
each program through which the FCC collects or distributes $100 
million or more.
    New Section 13(a) is intended to ensure that the Commission 
provides a more predictable framework for making decisions as 
well as adequate opportunity for public participation. Too 
often, the members of the public will file petitions for 
declaratory ruling, rulemaking, or reconsideration of an FCC 
decision only to find that their petitions languish at the 
agency for an extended and often indeterminate length of 
time.\18\ The Commission also has begun rulemakings and failed 
to conclude them in a timely fashion or simply to close the 
docket.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\See, e.g., in re Fifty-five Unopposed Petitions for 
Determination of Effective Competition, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 
29 FCC Rcd 3140 (2014) (closing out unopposed petitions for 
determination of effective competition, some of which had been filed in 
early December of 2011).
    \19\See 2014 Quadrennial Regulatory Review--Review of the 
Commission's Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant 
to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Further Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking and Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd 4371 (2014). The 
Commission did not complete the 2010 Quadrennial Review, as statutorily 
required. Instead, it decided that it would incorporate the 2010 Review 
into the 2014 Quadrennial Review without producing a separate report. 
Similarly, the Commission failed to complete Video Competition Reports. 
See also Special Access for Price Cap Exchange Carriers, WC Docket No. 
05-25 (which has been fully briefed several times and also is based on 
a petition for rulemaking, which was opened in 2002 and related to 
special access rates).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    With specific regard to new section 13(a)(2)(A), the bill 
requires the Commission to set minimum comment periods to set 
expectations for the public on the timeframe for the impending 
Commission actions. The Commission retains the flexibility to 
depart from such comment periods for significant regulatory 
actions as defined in Executive Order No. 12866 and 
rulemakings. This is a practice supported by the Administrative 
Conference of the United States (ACUS).\20\ The President also 
issued guidance to executive agencies that sixty days should be 
the minimum comment period to ``afford the public a meaningful 
opportunity to comment.''\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\See ACUS, improving the Environment for Agency Rulemaking, 
Recommendation No. 93-4.
    \21\See Executive Order No. 13563, 76 Fed. Reg. 3821 (Jan. 21, 
2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Section 13(a)(2)(B) is intended to remedy a chronic problem 
with the FCC's notice and comment procedures. Currently, 
parties can wait until near the end of the comment period to 
submit massive amounts of new evidence in the docket to support 
their positions. The last-minute inclusion deprives other 
stakeholders of the opportunity to adequately analyze the 
submission and respond.\22\ Section 13(a)(2)(C) is intended to 
remedy a similar situation, in which the agency submits 
documents very late in the process and substantially relies on 
those submissions to justify the regulation.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\See, e.g., Comments of the National Association of Regulatory 
Utility Commissioners, FCC GN Docket No. 14-25 (filed Mar. 31, 2014) at 
13.
    \23\This is not a theoretical concern. Just seven days before the 
Commissioners were due to vote on the reform of the intercarrier 
compensation and universal service regimes, the Wireline Competition 
Bureau of the FCC inundated the record with thousands of pages of lists 
of academic reports and published articles, studies, position papers, 
analyses, statistics, newspaper articles, white papers, publications, 
handbooks, State laws, State regulatory pleadings and decisions, 
reference works, industry surveys, treatises, congressional reports, 
and correspondence to the FCC. The National Association of Regulatory 
Utility Commissioners (NARUC) urged the FCC to ``establish some sort of 
a procedure . . . to assure this sort of thing does not happen again.'' 
See Comments of NARUC, GN Docket No. 14-25 (filed Mar. 31, 2014) at 14.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Section 13(a)(2)(D) was included in H.R. 3675 in the 113th 
Congress and requires the FCC to report on the status of its 
open proceedings and to provide the public with clear 
information on the efficiency of the agency. During the full 
Committee mark-up, the section was amended to include a 
proposal offered by Rep. Clarke (D-NY), which would require the 
Commission also to report on the status of requests for action 
from the public as well as on the cost of Congressional 
investigations. The analysis of the cost of Congressional 
investigations will be subject to audit per section 13(a)(5).
    Section 13(a) also requires the Commission to seek public 
comment on a notice of inquiry into whether and how the 
Commission should (1) allow a bipartisan majority of 
Commissioners to add an item to the Commission's agenda; (2) 
inform Commissioners of all options available on a given 
Commission item; (3) ensure that Commissioners have adequate 
time to review the text of Commission items; (4) publish the 
text of items for Commission consideration prior to Commission 
vote; (5) establish deadlines for the processing of 
applications for licenses; (6) generate additional resources 
for the processing of applications; and (7) publish Commission 
decisions within thirty days of adoption.
    Section 13(a)(2)(G) requires the Commission to establish 
procedures for including the specific language of a proposed 
rule in the notice of proposed rulemaking. In the past decade, 
the Commission has fallen into the habit of delineating only a 
general summary of potential action in Notices of Proposed 
Rulemaking, without including the specific language of proposed 
rules.\24\ The inclusion of the specific text of proposed rules 
is ``a critical step in facilitating meaningful discussion.'' 
Without the text of the proposed rules,\25\ the public is left 
``with the challenge of guessing what issues are really 
important,'' which ``undermines the opportunity for meaningful 
participation and effective deliberation.''\26\ The public 
deserves a Commission that can commit to ``publishing the text 
of proposed rules sufficiently in advance of Commission 
meetings for both (i) the public to have a meaningful 
opportunity to comment and (ii) the Commissioners to have a 
meaningful opportunity to review such comments.''\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\See, e.g., Letter from Frederick Butler, President, NARUC, to 
Susan Crawford, Visiting Professor, Yale Law School, Obama-Biden 
Transition Team on the FCC (Dec. 12, 2008), available at http://
www.naruc.org/Testimony/08%201212%20RV%20FCC%20Transition%20letter.pdf. 
(``The FCC frequently releases vague Notices of Proposed Rulemaking 
that fail to articulate proposed rules and read more like Notices of 
Inquiry by posing countless open-ended questions.'')
    \25\Michael Weinberg and Gigi B. Sohn, An FCC for the Internet Age: 
Recommendations for Reforming the Federal Communications Commission, at 
4 (Mar. 5, 2010), available at http://go.usa.gov/PyH.
    \26\Philip J. Weiser, FCC Reform and the Future of 
Telecommunications Policy at 16-17 (Jan. 5, 2009), available at http://
fcc-reform.org/ paper/fcc-reform-and-future-telecommunications-policy.
    \27\Letter from Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman, Committee on Energy 
and Commerce, to the Honorable Kevin J. Martin, Chairman, Federal 
Communications Commission (Dec. 3, 2007).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Section 13(a)(2)(H) attempts to increase the transparency 
of the Commission's largest programs, such as the Universal 
Service Fund and the Interstate Telecommunications Relay 
Service Fund. The Government Performance Results Act of 1993 
already requires the FCC and other agencies to identify yearly 
performance goals for all items on the Federal budget.\28\ 
Despite this requirement, the Government Accountability Office 
has repeatedly cited the FCC for failing to establish 
objective, quantifiable performance measures for the various 
programs within the Universal Service Fund.\29\ To remedy this 
situation, this subsection requires the Commission to develop 
performance measures for its program activities, defined as 
each program listed in the Federal budget, as well as each 
program through which the Commission collects or distributes 
$100 million or more, relying on data it already collects when 
possible. To reduce the administrative burden, this subsection 
does not require the FCC to adopt performance measures 
immediately, but instead to adopt them as it moves forward with 
reforms of the Universal Service Fund, the Interstate 
Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, and its other program 
activities. The Committee expects that the Commission will 
include performance measures that address both the collection 
and distribution of funds.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\See 5 U.S.C. Sec. 1115 et al.
    \29\See, e.g., GAO Report No. 11-11, Improved Management Can 
Enhance FCC Decision Making for the Universal Service Fund Low-Income 
Program (Oct. 2010); GAO Report No. 09-253, Long-Term Strategic Vision 
Would Help Ensure Targeting of E-Rate Funds to Highest-Priority Uses 
(Mar. 2009); GAO Report No. 08-633, FCC Needs To Improve Performance 
Management and Strengthen Oversight of the High-Cost Program (June 
2008); GAO Report No. 05-151, Greater Involvement Needed by FCC in the 
Management and Oversight of the E-Rate Program (Feb. 2005).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Given that the FCC already has 417 separate information 
collections approved by the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs,\30\ the Committee does not expect the FCC 
will need to create new information collections in order to 
establish meaningful performance measures. If the FCC 
determines otherwise, the Committee expects that the Commission 
will first look to consolidate and reduce the burden of 
existing collections before imposing new burdens.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\See OIRA, Inventory of Currently Approved Information 
Collections, http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain (search for 
``Federal Communications Commission''); see also GAO Report No. 10-249, 
Information Collection and Management at the Federal Communications 
Commission (Jan. 2010).
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            Section 13(b) Periodic review
    This subsection requires the FCC to conduct a rulemaking to 
review the rules established in subsection 13(a) every five 
years.
            Section 13(c) Nonpublic collaborative discussions
    This subsection allows a bipartisan majority of 
Commissioners to meet for collaborative discussions if they 
disclose such meetings within two business days and comply with 
Office of General Counsel oversight. This subsection also 
applies to meetings of Federal-State Joint Boards. The 
testimonies of multiple administrative law experts recommend 
the exception as a means of increasing the efficiency of 
Commissioner negotiations for policymaking.\31\ However, the 
Committee recognizes that this subsection creates an exception 
to the Government in the Sunshine Act.\32\ As such, the 
Committee does not grant this privilege lightly; the permission 
to engage in non-public collaborations takes effect only when 
the procedural safeguards required in the rulemaking as 
directed in section 13(a)(1) have been implemented. See Section 
1(b) of the bill. This section does not otherwise change the 
applicability of the Government in Sunshine Act to the 
Commission's Open Meetings.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\See, e.g., Testimony of Stuart Minor Benajamin, Douglas M. 
Maggas Professor of Law, Duke Law School, before the Subcommittee on 
Communications and Technology (May 15, 2015). See also Randolph J. May, 
Reforming the Sunshine Act, 49 Ad. Law Rev. 415 (1997).
    \32\Government in the Sunshine Act, Pub. L. 94-409, 90 Stat. 1241 
(1976), codified at 5. U.S.C. Sec.  552b.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Section 13(d) Publication of documents in advance of FCC 
                    voting
    This subsection requires the FCC Chairman to make documents 
to be voted on by the Commission available within twenty-four 
hours of circulation to the Commissioners for vote. This 
applies to both documents to be voted at Open Meetings and 
documents to be voted on circulation. Under the current rules, 
the Chairman is the sole arbiter of when information on a draft 
order reaches the public.\33\ As such, stakeholders are 
uncertain as to whether their concerns are addressed, how the 
changed or new rules will modify their obligations, or whether 
the Commission's actions will produce the results desired, 
among other things. More problematically, those with special 
access to members of the agency have greater knowledge of the 
Commission's actions, which, as the Government Accountability 
Office has found, gives those stakeholders an advantage in 
lobbying the FCC.\34\ Moreover, other Commissioners are 
prevented from fully discussing the issues in the document with 
potentially impacted parties before a vote, because they are 
prohibited from discovering the specifics of a proposal. This 
does not promote informed policymaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\See 47 C.F.R. Sec. 19.735-203 (which begins ``Except as 
authorized in writing by the Chairman pursuant to paragraph (b) of this 
section, or otherwise as authorized by the Commission or its rules, 
nonpublic information shall not be disclosed, directly or indirectly, 
to any person outside the Commission.'').
    \34\See Government Accountability Office Report 07-1046, ``FCC 
Should Take Steps to Ensure Equal Access to Rulemaking Information'' 
(Sept. 2007).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This subsection establishes a practice of publishing the 
documents to be voted on by the Commission before an actual 
vote, allowing access to the public. This also is a practice 
endorsed by ACUS.\35\ Other Federal agencies already practice 
this type of transparency either by providing the proposed text 
of rules from the outset of the comment period or releasing the 
final text of the rules before the final decision.\36\
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    \35\See ACUS Recommendation 2014-2 available at https://
www.acus.gov/recommendation/government-sunshine-act.
    \36\FERC, which operates at an almost identical size, composition, 
budget, and statutory basis as the FCC, releases orders the day of the 
vote. The FTC releases the actual text of rules before proceeding to a 
final decision, pursuant to Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 USC 
Section 57 a(b)(1)(A).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Critics have argued that this subsection would hamper the 
deliberative process at the FCC. This subsection explicitly 
recognizes in subparagraph (2) that the draft to be published 
is a document, subject to revision; the only requirement is 
that the document reflects the intent of the Commission at the 
time of circulation. It is important to note that the Committee 
expects the Chairman to publish a bona fide representation of 
the decision at the time and not to post an ersatz proposal to 
be completely replaced at a later date.\37\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \37\See Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, ``FCC's Pre-Adoption Process 
Also Needs Work,'' FCC Blog, Apr. 1, 2015 at http://www.fcc.gov/blog/
fcc-s-pre-adoption-process-also-needs-work. Commissioner O'Rielly sums 
up the issue by stating, ``It is patently unfair to expect 
Commissioners to promptly read and provide feedback on an item when 
staff is working on a substantially different document to be provided 
later--sometimes not until late the night before a vote.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This subsection, however, does allow the Commission to 
withhold certain information in keeping with the exceptions 
permitted in the Government in Sunshine Act. Failure to post 
other documents within the twenty-four-hour window, however, 
would result in a twenty-one-day delay--the standard 
circulation period for an item to be considered at an open 
meeting of the Commission--before the document may be voted on, 
so that the FCC may remedy its error and provide the document 
for publication.
    Critics also have argued that posting a draft decision 
before the vote could lead to a fresh round of comments from 
stakeholders, forcing the Commission to delay its vote until 
the comments are incorporated. The Committee notes that current 
practice at the Commission permits lobbying during circulation 
of a document, less the sunshine period for open meeting items. 
There is a significant body of caselaw addressing the issue of 
the public's right to comment\38\ and the doctrine of ripeness, 
which governs the availability of judicial review.\39\ 
Moreover, should comments arise that require significant 
response, the Commission should delay resolution of the item 
until a meaningful review of any new issues has been completed. 
Nonetheless, to foreclose any questions of whether the posted 
draft should be considered actionable, this subsection includes 
subparagraph (4), which clearly states that the publication of 
the draft itself does not constitute final agency action, 
available for judicial review.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \38\See, e.g., Sprint Corp. v. FCC, 331 F.3d 952 (D.C. Cir. 2003) 
(stating that Commission need not address every possible comment but 
need only ``respond in a reasoned manner to those [comments] that raise 
significant problems'').
    \39\See, e.g., Bennett v. Spear, 520 US 154 (1997).
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            Section 13(e) Timely availability of changes to rules of 
                    the Commission
    This subsection requires the Commission to post the text of 
its rules (i.e., the actual modifications to the Code of 
Federal Regulations) on its Internet website within 24 hours of 
adoption.
    Once the Commissioners have voted to adopt an item, the 
document often remains unreleased to the public, preventing the 
public from fully understanding the Commission's action. Part 
of the reason for this delay is the routine practice of 
granting the Commission staff ``editorial privileges,'' which 
range from proofreading and cleaning up the document, to making 
changes to the text of the item to address arguments raised by 
dissenting Commissioners.\40\ However, a significant lag 
between the vote and the publication of the voted item could 
indicate substantive changes buried in the ``editorial 
privileges'' process. In fact, the FCC has maintained the 
confidentiality of the as-voted document as exempt from 
disclosure under FOIA's ``deliberative process privilege,'' 
despite the fact that the vote had occurred already and 
deliberation had ended.\41\ Substantive post-decision revisions 
could undermine the legitimacy of the Commission's decision and 
the integrity of the rulemaking. This subsection would require 
the Commission to promulgate the text of the rules, which 
should not require further editing, if these rules were the 
basis for the Commissioners' votes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \40\The concept of ``editorial privileges'' is itself controversial 
as there does not appear to be any support for the practice in the laws 
governing the Commission's process. See e.g. Commissioner Michael 
O'Rielly, ``Fixing Flawed and Non-Existent `Editorial Privileges,''' 
FCC Blog, Mar. 9, 2015 at http://www.fcc.gov/blog/fixing-flawed-and-
non-existent-editorial-privileges.
    \41\Associated Press, ``Voted Items at FCC may be Secret till 
Final, Agency Says,'' Jun. 19, 2008 available at http://
www.firstamendmentcenter.org/voted-items-at-fcc-may-be-secret-till-
final-agency-says.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Section 13(f) Access to certain information on the 
                    Commission's website.
    This subsection requires the FCC to provide links on the 
Commission's home page to the current budget, appropriations, 
number of full-time equivalent employees, and the Commission's 
performance plan. This practice is followed by most other 
administrative agencies, and availability of this information 
would provide valuable insight into the operations of the 
Commission.
    While this subsection requires only that the Commission 
publish information for the current fiscal year, the Committee 
hopes the Commission will provide such information on a 
historical basis, as is common practice at other agencies. The 
cost and operation of the Commission is a matter of public 
record, and the Committee does not believe it will constitute a 
burden to require the agency to make such historical 
information easily accessible to the public.
            Section 13(g) Internet publication of certain FCC policies 
                    and procedures.
    This subsection is based on a draft bill proposed by Rep. 
Loebsack and requires the FCC to publish policies and 
procedures that govern the Commission's decisionmaking process. 
The Chairman of the Commission is considered the ``CEO'' of the 
Commission and may dictate procedures for carrying out 
Commission business.\42\ As a result, the Chairman manages the 
staff of the entire agency (other than those in the offices of 
the other Commissioners), including the General Counsel and the 
Inspector General, determines which policy matters will be 
considered and when they will be considered, and controls the 
availability of information to the public and to other 
Commissioners.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \42\See 47 U.S.C. Sec. 155(a) (stating ``The member of the 
Commission designed by the President as chairman shall be the chief 
executive officer of the Commission'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It does not appear that the FCC maintains standard 
operating manuals for basic Commission decision-making 
functions, such as procedures for providing information to the 
offices of other Commissioners for agenda items, as recommended 
by the GAO.\43\ Limited information on agency procedures 
impedes the public's ability to determine whether the agency is 
functioning effectively. Other independent agencies have posted 
these materials on their websites and make them available to 
the public.\44\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \43\See GAO Report 10-79, ``FCC Management: Improvements Needed in 
Communications, Decision-Making Processes, and Workforce Planning'' 
(December 2009) at 2.
    \44\See, e.g., NRC Procedures http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/policy-
making/internal.html; FTC Procedures https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/
foia/foia-resources/ftc-administrative-staff-manuals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Section 13(h) Federal Register publication.
    This subsection requires the FCC to publish the documents 
specified in the Federal Register no later than forty-five days 
after release of the document or the day specified under any 
other provision of law.
            Section 13(i) Consumer complaint database.
    This subsection requires the FCC to put consumer complaint 
information in a publicly available, searchable database on its 
website.
            Section 13(j) Form of publication.
    This subsection requires the FCC to publish documents 
specified in this section on its website.
            Section 13(k) Transparency relating to performance in 
                    meeting FOIA requirements.
    This subsection requires the FCC to take additional steps 
to inform the public about its performance in meeting the 
disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.
            Section 13(l) Prompt release of statistical reports and 
                    reports to Congress.
    This subsection requires the FCC to establish a schedule 
for the release of its required reports.
            Section 13(m) Annual scorecard.
    This subsection requires the FCC to report annually 
regarding its performance in meeting the deadlines and 
guidelines established in subsection (a), as well as how the 
Commission has used administrative law judges and independent 
studies.
            Section 13(n) Definitions
    This subsection defines several terms used in the Act, 
including ``performance measure'' and ``program activity.''
    Section 2(b). Section 2(b) sets the effective dates for the 
changes required in section 2(a). It also sets the schedule of 
the reports to be submitted under new section 13.
    Specifically, Commission is required to complete its 
rulemaking on new section 13 no later than one year after the 
date of enactment and delays the implementation of the non-
public collaborative discussion provisions until all rules 
required by section 13 have taken effect.
    The implementation of subsection 13(d) on publishing FCC 
documents in advance of voting must be completed no later than 
ninety days after the date of enactment.
    The implementation of subsection 13(e) on the timely 
availability of the newly voted rules must be completed no 
later than thirty days after the date of enactment.
    The implementation of subsection 13(g) on the availability 
of Commission decisionmaking procedures must be completed no 
later than 30 days after the date of enactment.

Section 3. Categorization of TCPA inquiries and complaints in quarterly 
        report

    Section 3 prohibits the FCC from categorizing inquiries or 
complaints under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as 
wireline or wireless inquiries or complaints unless the 
complaint or inquiry originated from the conduct of a wireline 
or wireless carrier.

Section 4. Effect on other laws

    Section 4 specifies that the Act does not alter the general 
framework established by the Administrative Procedures Act and 
related laws, except where it does so explicitly (i.e., 
allowing deliberative collaboration among Commissioners and on 
the Federal-State Joint Boards).

Section 5. Application of Antideficiency Act to Universal Service 
        Program

    Section 5 creates a waiver of the Antideficiency Act for 
the Federal Universal Service Fund through December 31, 2020. 
The Universal Service Fund has been subject to a series of 
temporary waivers since 2004.

Section 6. Report on improving Small Business participation in FCC 
        proceedings.

    Section 6 requires the Commission to consult with the Small 
Business Administration (SBA) to produce a report recommending 
actions and legislation that would improve the participation of 
small businesses in Commission proceedings. This section was 
based on a draft bill proposed by Rep. Matsui to remedy 
concerns that the small business community has not been able to 
engage in proceedings at the Commission. As the Commission 
considers how it may engage small businesses, it must carefully 
consider the definition of ``small business.'' Since Congress 
has designated the SBA as the expert entity on small 
businesses, the Committee strongly recommends that the 
Commission defer to the SBA's existing size standard 
definition.

Section 7. Identification and description of items to be decided on 
        authority delegated by the Commission

    Section 7 requires the Commission to describe and list 
items to be adopted on delegated authority on its website 
forty-eight hours before the action becomes effective. This 
change must be made no later than ninety days after the date of 
enactment.
    Not all work at the FCC is done at the Commission level. By 
statute, the Commission is permitted to delegate certain 
routine matters to staff in order to ensure that the FCC runs 
smoothly and stakeholder needs are met in a timely fashion.\45\ 
The FCC's rules, however, prohibit staff from resolving new or 
novel questions of law or policy that cannot be resolved under 
outstanding Commission precedents or guidelines.\46\ That 
responsibility falls to the Commission, which is tasked with 
interpreting policy under the statute. Without safeguards, 
however, there is the danger that items on delegated authority 
may address new and novel questions of law or policy.\47\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \45\47 U.S.C. Sec. 155(c)(1).
    \46\See 47 C.F.R. Part 0, Subpart B.
    \47\In March 2014, the Media Bureau, using delegated authority, 
changed longstanding FCC policy with regard to the approval of 
broadcast television transactions involving sharing agreements. This 
policy change was neither routine nor non-controversial. Yet, this 
change in Commission policy was not debated among the Commissioners, 
and it was not subject to a vote of any kind. Rather, it was announced 
by the Chief of the Media Bureau in a Public Notice. See FCC Public 
Notice, ``Process of Broadcast Television Applications Proposing 
Sharing Arrangements and Contingent Interests,'' DA 14-330 (rel. Mar. 
12, 2014); In July 2014, a Public Notice related to the then upcoming 
AWS-3 auction was placed on circulation, beginning the process by which 
Commissioners and their staffs may request edits and ultimately vote on 
the item. However, subsequent action by the Chairman's office removed 
the item from circulation and directed the Wireless Telecommunications 
Bureau to issue the Public Notice on delegated authority--depriving the 
public of essential process and the members of the Commission an 
opportunity to vote on the matter. According to the media reports, one 
of the Commissioners sought information related to the substance of the 
Public Notice and was told he would be briefed after the item was 
adopted. See FCC Press Release, Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai on 
the Pulling of the AWS-3 Coordination Item From Commission 
Consideration, Jul. 18, 2014, at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/
attachmatch/DOC-328339A1.pdf. Other instances have been documented in a 
variety of trade press.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It is unwritten policy at the FCC to provide Commissioners 
with some notice--varying from forty-eight hours to no time at 
all-when an action is decided at the Bureau or Office level on 
delegated authority.\48\ This bill seeks to codify a good 
policy already loosely in practice at the Commission to prevent 
abuse of the delegated authority.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \48\See Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, ``Delegated Authority: 
Serious Objections and Solutions,'' FCC Blog, Feb. 2, 2015 at http://
www.fcc.gov/blog/delegated-authority-serious-objections-and-solutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Critics have argued that requiring advance notice of items 
to be issued on delegated authority would slow the Commission's 
operations to a crawl. Chairman Wheeler testified that over 
950,000 items were decided on delegated authority in 2014.\49\ 
However, Bureau Chiefs at the Commission may adopt certain 
delegated items and assign a ``DA'' number, if the Bureau Chief 
considers that the decision may have precedential value in the 
future and may resolve an ``issue of broad public 
attention.''\50\ Of the 950,000 items, only 1,845 items 
received a DA number in 2014.\51\ In order to avoid slowing the 
agency's most routine operations, the subsection requires only 
that those items receiving a DA number be listed and described 
forty-eight hours before adoption. Accordingly, the Committee 
hopes to ensure that the Commission's use of delegated 
authority remains above reproach.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \49\See Testimony of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, before the 
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (Apr. 30, 2015).
    \50\See John Eggerton, ``CC Source: Both Walden, Eshoo DA Figures 
Are Correct,'' Broadcasting&Cable (May 20, 2015) at http://
www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/fcc-source-both-walden-eshoo-
da-figures-are-correct/141061.
    \51\The 1,845 figure was submitted by the Commission in response to 
a letter sent to the FCC Chairman from Full Committee Chairman Fred 
Upton, Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, and Subcommittee Chairman Greg 
Walden on February 15, 2015.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

         Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

  In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by 
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law 
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new 
matter is printed in italic, and existing law in which no 
change is proposed is shown in roman):

                       COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934


TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


SEC. 5. ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONING OF THE COMMISSION.

  (a) The member of the Commission designated by the President 
as chairman shall be the chief executive officer of the 
Commission. It shall be his duty to preside at all meetings and 
sessions of the Commission, to represent the Commission in all 
matters relating to legislation and legislative reports, except 
that any commissioner may present his own or minority views or 
supplemental reports, to represent the Commission in all 
matters requiring conferences or communications with other 
governmental officers, departments or agencies, and generally 
to coordinate and organize the work of the Commission in such 
manner as to promote prompt and efficient disposition of all 
matters within the jurisdiction of the Commission. In the case 
of a vacancy in the office of the chairman of the Commission, 
or the absence or inability of the chairman to serve, the 
Commission may temporarily designate one of its members to act 
as chairman until the cause or circumstance requiring such 
designation shall have been eliminated or corrected.
  (b) From time to time as the Commission may find necessary, 
the Commission shall organize its staff into (1) integrated 
bureaus, to function on the basis of the Commission's principal 
workload operations, and (2) such other divisional 
organizations as the Commission may deem necessary. Each such 
integrated bureau shall include such legal, engineering, 
accounting, administrative, clerical, and other personnel as 
the Commission may determine to be necessary to perform its 
functions.
  (c)(1) When necessary to the proper functioning of the 
Commission and the prompt and orderly conduct of its business, 
the Commission may, by published rule or by order, delegate any 
of its functions (except functions granted to the Commission by 
this paragraph and by paragraphs (4), (5), and (6) of this 
subsection and except any action referred to in sections 
204(a)(2), 208(b), and 405(b)) to a panel of commissioners, an 
individual commissioner, an employee board, or an individual 
employee, including functions with respect to hearing, 
determining, ordering, certifying, reporting, or otherwise 
acting as to any work, business, or matter; except that in 
delegating review functions to employees in cases of 
adjudication (as defined in the Administrative Procedure Act), 
the delegation in any such case may be made only to an employee 
board consisting of two or more employees referred to in 
paragraph (8). Any such rule or order may be adopted, amended, 
or rescinded only by a vote of a majority of the members of the 
Commission then holding office. Except for cases involving the 
authorization of service in the instructional television fixed 
service, or as otherwise provided in this Act, nothing in this 
paragraph shall authorize the Commission to provide for the 
conduct, by any person or persons other than persons referred 
to in paragraph (2) or (3) of section 556(b) of title 5, United 
States Code, of any hearing to which such section applies.
  (2) As used in this subsection (d) the term ``order, 
decision, report, or action'' does not include an initial, 
tentative, or recommended decision to which exceptions may be 
filed as provided in section 409(b).
  (3) Any order, decision, report, or action made or taken 
pursuant to any such delegation, unless reviewed as provided in 
paragraph (4), shall have the same force and effect, and shall 
be made, evidenced, and enforced in the same manner, as orders, 
decisions, reports, or other actions of the Commission.
  (4) Any person aggrieved by any such order, decision, report 
or action may file an application for review by the Commission 
within such time and in such manner as the Commission shall 
prescribe, and every such application shall be passed upon by 
the Commission. The Commission, on its own initiative, may 
review in whole or in part, at such time and in such manner as 
it shall determine, any order, decision, report, or action made 
or taken pursuant to any delegation under paragraph (1).
  (5) In passing upon applications for review, the Commission 
may grant, in whole or in part, or deny such applications 
without specifying any reasons therefore. No such application 
for review shall rely on questions of fact or law upon which 
the panel of commissioners, individual commissioner, employee 
board, or individual employee has been afforded no opportunity 
to pass.
  (6) If the Commission grants the application for review, it 
may affirm, modify, or set aside the order, decision, report, 
or action, or it may order a rehearing upon such order, 
decision, report, or action in accordance with section 405.
  (7) The filing of an application for review under this 
subsection shall be a condition precedent to judicial review of 
any order, decision, report, or action made or taken pursuant 
to a delegation under paragraph (1). The time within which a 
petition for review must be filed in a proceeding to which 
section 402(a) applies, or within which an appeal must be taken 
under section 402(b), shall be computed from the date upon 
which public notice is given of orders disposing of all 
applications for review filed in any case.
  (8) The employees to whom the Commission may delegate review 
functions in any case of adjudication (as defined in the 
Administrative Procedure Act) shall be qualified, by reason of 
their training, experience, and competence, to perform such 
review functions, and shall perform no duties inconsistent with 
such review functions. Such employees shall be in a grade 
classification or salary level commensurate with their 
important duties, and in no event less than the grade 
classification or salary level of the employee or employees 
whose actions are to be reviewed. In the performance of such 
review functions such employees shall be assigned to cases in 
rotation so far as practicable and shall not be responsible to 
or subject to the supervision or direction of any officer, 
employee, or agent engaged in the performance of investigative 
or prosecuting functions for any agency.
  (9) The secretary and seal of the Commission shall be the 
secretary and seal of each panel of the Commission, each 
individual commissioner, and each employee board or individual 
employee exercising functions delegated pursuant to paragraph 
(1) of this subsection.
  (10) Not later than 48 hours before the time when an order, 
decision, report, or action is made or taken pursuant to 
delegation under paragraph (1), such order, decision, report, 
or action shall be identified and briefly described on the 
Internet website of the Commission, unless the authority to 
which the delegation is made for good cause finds that such 
identification and description are likely to lead to a result 
described in a paragraph of section 552b(c) of title 5, United 
States Code. Identification and description pursuant to this 
paragraph shall not constitute ``agency action'' as defined in 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code. This paragraph 
shall not apply with respect to an order, decision, report, or 
action that--
          (A) does not receive a delegated authority number 
        pursuant to the procedures of the Commission;
          (B) is made or taken on authority delegated to an 
        administrative law judge; or
          (C) is made or taken to address an immediate threat 
        to health or safety that constitutes an emergency 
        requiring an expedited response from the Commission.
  (d) Meetings of the Commission shall be held at regular 
intervals, not less frequently than once each calendar month, 
at which times the functioning of the Commission and the 
handling of its work load shall be reviewed and such orders 
shall be entered and other action taken as may be necessary or 
appropriate to expedite the prompt and orderly conduct of the 
business of the Commission with the objective of rendering a 
final decision (1) within three months from the date of filing 
in all original application, renewal, and transfer cases in 
which it will not be necessary to hold a hearing, and (2) 
within six months from the final date of the hearing in all 
hearing cases.
  (e) The Commission shall have a Managing Director who shall 
be appointed by the Chairman subject to the approval of the 
Commission. The Managing Director, under the supervision and 
direction of the Chairman, shall perform such administrative 
and executive functions as the Chairman shall delegate. The 
Managing Director shall be paid at a rate equal to the rate 
then payable for level V of the Executive Schedule.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


SEC. 13. TRANSPARENCY AND EFFICIENCY.

  (a) Initial Rulemaking and Inquiry.--
          (1) Rulemaking.--Not later than 1 year after the date 
        of the enactment of the Federal Communications 
        Commission Process Reform Act of 2015, the Commission 
        shall complete a rulemaking proceeding and adopt 
        procedural changes to its rules to maximize 
        opportunities for public participation and efficient 
        decisionmaking.
          (2) Requirements for rulemaking.--The rules adopted 
        under paragraph (1) shall--
                  (A) set minimum comment periods for comment 
                and reply comment, subject to a determination 
                by the Commission that good cause exists for 
                departing from such minimum comment periods, 
                for--
                          (i) significant regulatory actions, 
                        as defined in Executive Order No. 
                        12866; and
                          (ii) all other rulemaking 
                        proceedings;
                  (B) establish policies concerning the 
                submission of extensive new comments, data, or 
                reports towards the end of the comment period;
                  (C) establish policies regarding treatment of 
                comments, ex parte communications, and data or 
                reports (including statistical reports and 
                reports to Congress) submitted after the 
                comment period to ensure that the public has 
                adequate notice of and opportunity to respond 
                to such submissions before the Commission 
                relies on such submissions in any order, 
                decision, report, or action;
                  (D) establish procedures for, not later than 
                14 days after the end of each quarter of a 
                calendar year (or more frequently, as the 
                Commission considers appropriate), publishing 
                on the Internet website of the Commission and 
                submitting to Congress a report that contains--
                          (i) the status of open rulemaking 
                        proceedings and proposed orders, 
                        decisions, reports, or actions on 
                        circulation for review by the 
                        Commissioners, including which 
                        Commissioners have not cast a vote on 
                        an order, decision, report, or action 
                        that has been on circulation for more 
                        than 60 days;
                          (ii) for the petitions, applications, 
                        complaints, and other requests for 
                        action by the Commission that were 
                        pending at the Commission on the last 
                        day of such quarter (or more frequent 
                        period, as the case may be)--
                                  (I) the number of such 
                                requests, broken down by the 
                                bureau primarily responsible 
                                for action and, for each 
                                bureau, the type of request 
                                (such as a petition, 
                                application, or complaint); and
                                  (II) information regarding 
                                the amount of time for which 
                                such requests have been 
                                pending, broken down as 
                                described in subclause (I); and
                          (iii) a list of the congressional 
                        investigations of the Commission that 
                        were pending on the last day of such 
                        quarter (or more frequent period, as 
                        the case may be) and the cost of such 
                        investigations, individually and in the 
                        aggregate;
                  (E) establish deadlines (relative to the date 
                of filing) for--
                          (i) in the case of a petition for a 
                        declaratory ruling under section 1.2 of 
                        title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, 
                        issuing a public notice of such 
                        petition;
                          (ii) in the case of a petition for 
                        rulemaking under section 1.401 of such 
                        title, issuing a public notice of such 
                        petition; and
                          (iii) in the case of a petition for 
                        reconsideration under section 1.106 or 
                        1.429 of such title or an application 
                        for review under section 1.115 of such 
                        title, issuing a public notice of a 
                        decision on the petition or application 
                        by the Commission or under delegated 
                        authority (as the case may be);
                  (F) establish guidelines (relative to the 
                date of filing) for the disposition of 
                petitions filed under section 1.2 of such 
                title;
                  (G) establish procedures for the inclusion of 
                the specific language of the proposed rule or 
                the proposed amendment of an existing rule in a 
                notice of proposed rulemaking; and
                  (H) require notices of proposed rulemaking 
                and orders adopting a rule or amending an 
                existing rule that--
                          (i) create (or propose to create) a 
                        program activity to contain performance 
                        measures for evaluating the 
                        effectiveness of the program activity; 
                        and
                          (ii) substantially change (or propose 
                        to substantially change) a program 
                        activity to contain--
                                  (I) performance measures for 
                                evaluating the effectiveness of 
                                the program activity as changed 
                                (or proposed to be changed); or
                                  (II) a finding that existing 
                                performance measures will 
                                effectively evaluate the 
                                program activity as changed (or 
                                proposed to be changed).
          (3) Inquiry.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        the enactment of the Federal Communications Commission 
        Process Reform Act of 2015, the Commission shall 
        complete an inquiry to seek public comment on whether 
        and how the Commission should--
                  (A) establish procedures for allowing a 
                bipartisan majority of Commissioners to place 
                an order, decision, report, or action on the 
                agenda of an open meeting;
                  (B) establish procedures for informing all 
                Commissioners of a reasonable number of options 
                available to the Commission for resolving a 
                petition, complaint, application, rulemaking, 
                or other proceeding;
                  (C) establish procedures for ensuring that 
                all Commissioners have adequate time, prior to 
                being required to decide a petition, complaint, 
                application, rulemaking, or other proceeding 
                (including at a meeting held pursuant to 
                section 5(d)), to review the proposed 
                Commission decision document, including the 
                specific language of any proposed rule or any 
                proposed amendment of an existing rule;
                  (D) establish deadlines (relative to the date 
                of filing) for disposition of applications for 
                a license under section 1.913 of title 47, Code 
                of Federal Regulations;
                  (E) assign resources needed in order to meet 
                the deadlines described in subparagraph (D), 
                including whether the Commission's ability to 
                meet such deadlines would be enhanced by 
                assessing a fee from applicants for such a 
                license; and
                  (F) publish each order, decision, report, or 
                action not later than 30 days after the date of 
                the adoption of such order, decision, report, 
                or action.
          (4) Data for performance measures.--The Commission 
        shall develop a performance measure or proposed 
        performance measure required by this subsection to 
        rely, where possible, on data already collected by the 
        Commission.
          (5) GAO audit.--Not less frequently than every 6 
        months, the Comptroller General of the United States 
        shall audit the cost estimates provided by the 
        Commission under paragraph (2)(D)(iii) during the 
        preceding 6-month period.
  (b) Periodic Review.--On the date that is 5 years after the 
completion of the rulemaking proceeding under subsection 
(a)(1), and every 5 years thereafter, the Commission shall 
initiate a new rulemaking proceeding to continue to consider 
such procedural changes to its rules as may be in the public 
interest to maximize opportunities for public participation and 
efficient decisionmaking.
  (c) Nonpublic Collaborative Discussions.--
          (1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 552b of 
        title 5, United States Code, a bipartisan majority of 
        Commissioners may hold a meeting that is closed to the 
        public to discuss official business if--
                  (A) a vote or any other agency action is not 
                taken at such meeting;
                  (B) each person present at such meeting is a 
                Commissioner, an employee of the Commission, a 
                member of a joint board or conference 
                established under section 410, or a person on 
                the staff of such a joint board or conference 
                or of a member of such a joint board or 
                conference; and
                  (C) an attorney from the Office of General 
                Counsel of the Commission is present at such 
                meeting.
          (2) Disclosure of nonpublic collaborative 
        discussions.--Not later than 2 business days after the 
        conclusion of a meeting held under paragraph (1), the 
        Commission shall publish a disclosure of such meeting, 
        including--
                  (A) a list of the persons who attended such 
                meeting; and
                  (B) a summary of the matters discussed at 
                such meeting, except for such matters as the 
                Commission determines may be withheld under 
                section 552b(c) of title 5, United States Code.
          (3) Preservation of open meetings requirements for 
        agency action.--Nothing in this subsection shall limit 
        the applicability of section 552b of title 5, United 
        States Code, with respect to a meeting of Commissioners 
        other than that described in paragraph (1).
  (d) Publication of Documents in Advance of FCC Voting.--
          (1) In general.--The Commission may not adopt any 
        order, decision, report, or action by vote of the 
        Commission, unless the Chairman causes the Commission 
        to publish on the Internet website of the Commission 
        the text of such order, decision, report, or action--
                  (A) not later than 24 hours after the time 
                such text is placed on circulation for review 
                by the Commissioners; or
                  (B) not later than 21 days before the date on 
                which the vote is to occur.
          (2) Text to be published; effect.--The text published 
        pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be the text intended at 
        the time of the publishing to be subject to a vote. 
        Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent 
        the Commission from making changes to the text after 
        the publishing.
          (3) Exception.--This subsection shall not apply to a 
        portion of any order, decision, report, or action if 
        the publishing of such portion is likely to lead to a 
        result described in a paragraph of section 552b(c) of 
        title 5, United States Code.
          (4) Not agency action.--Publication pursuant to this 
        subsection shall not constitute ``agency action'' as 
        defined in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
  (e) Timely Availability of Changes to Rules of the 
Commission.--Not later than 24 hours after adopting a provision 
that will appear in the Code of Federal Regulations, or an 
amendment to or repeal of a provision that appears in the Code 
of Federal Regulations, the Commission shall publish on the 
Internet website of the Commission the text of the provision 
adopted or repealed, or the text indicating how the provision 
is being amended, as the case may be.
  (f) Access to Certain Information on Commission's Website.--
The Commission shall provide direct access from the homepage of 
its website to--
          (1) detailed information regarding--
                  (A) the budget of the Commission for the 
                current fiscal year;
                  (B) the appropriations for the Commission for 
                such fiscal year; and
                  (C) the total number of full-time equivalent 
                employees of the Commission; and
          (2) the performance plan most recently made available 
        by the Commission under section 1115(b) of title 31, 
        United States Code.
  (g) Internet Publication of Certain FCC Policies and 
Procedures.--The chairman of the Commission shall--
          (1) publish on the Internet website of the Commission 
        any policies or procedures of the Commission that--
                  (A) are established by the chairman; and
                  (B) relate to the functioning of the 
                Commission or the handling of the agenda of the 
                Commission; and
          (2) update such publication not later than 48 hours 
        after the chairman makes changes to any such policies 
        or procedures.
  (h) Federal Register Publication.--
          (1) In general.--In the case of any document adopted 
        by the Commission that the Commission is required, 
        under any provision of law, to publish in the Federal 
        Register, the Commission shall, not later than the date 
        described in paragraph (2), complete all Commission 
        actions necessary for such document to be so published.
          (2) Date described.--The date described in this 
        paragraph is the earlier of--
                  (A) the day that is 45 days after the date of 
                the release of the document; or
                  (B) the day by which such actions must be 
                completed to comply with any deadline under any 
                other provision of law.
          (3) No effect on deadlines for publication in other 
        form.--In the case of a deadline that does not specify 
        that the form of publication is publication in the 
        Federal Register, the Commission may comply with such 
        deadline by publishing the document in another form. 
        Such other form of publication does not relieve the 
        Commission of any Federal Register publication 
        requirement applicable to such document, including the 
        requirement of paragraph (1).
  (i) Consumer Complaint Database.--
          (1) In general.--In evaluating and processing 
        consumer complaints, the Commission shall present 
        information about such complaints in a publicly 
        available, searchable database on its website that--
                  (A) facilitates easy use by consumers; and
                  (B) to the extent practicable, is sortable 
                and accessible by--
                          (i) the date of the filing of the 
                        complaint;
                          (ii) the topic of the complaint;
                          (iii) the party complained of; and
                          (iv) other elements that the 
                        Commission considers in the public 
                        interest.
          (2) Duplicative complaints.--In the case of multiple 
        complaints arising from the same alleged misconduct, 
        the Commission shall be required to include only 
        information concerning one such complaint in the 
        database described in paragraph (1).
  (j) Form of Publication.--
          (1) In general.--In complying with a requirement of 
        this section to publish a document, the Commission 
        shall publish such document on its website, in addition 
        to publishing such document in any other form that the 
        Commission is required to use or is permitted to and 
        chooses to use.
          (2) Exception.--The Commission shall by rule 
        establish procedures for redacting documents required 
        to be published by this section so that the published 
        versions of such documents do not contain--
                  (A) information the publication of which 
                would be detrimental to national security, 
                homeland security, law enforcement, or public 
                safety; or
                  (B) information that is proprietary or 
                confidential.
  (k) Transparency Relating to Performance in Meeting FOIA 
Requirements.--The Commission shall take additional steps to 
inform the public about its performance and efficiency in 
meeting the disclosure and other requirements of section 552 of 
title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the 
Freedom of Information Act), including by doing the following:
          (1) Publishing on the Commission's website the 
        Commission's logs for tracking, responding to, and 
        managing requests submitted under such section, 
        including the Commission's fee estimates, fee 
        categories, and fee request determinations.
          (2) Releasing to the public all decisions made by the 
        Commission (including decisions made by the 
        Commission's Bureaus and Offices) granting or denying 
        requests filed under such section, including any such 
        decisions pertaining to the estimate and application of 
        fees assessed under such section.
          (3) Publishing on the Commission's website electronic 
        copies of documents released under such section.
          (4) Presenting information about the Commission's 
        handling of requests under such section in the 
        Commission's annual budget estimates submitted to 
        Congress and the Commission's annual performance and 
        financial reports. Such information shall include the 
        number of requests under such section the Commission 
        received in the most recent fiscal year, the number of 
        such requests granted and denied, a comparison of the 
        Commission's processing of such requests over at least 
        the previous 3 fiscal years, and a comparison of the 
        Commission's results with the most recent average for 
        the United States Government as published on 
        www.foia.gov.
  (l) Prompt Release of Statistical Reports and Reports to 
Congress.--Not later than January 15th of each year, the 
Commission shall identify, catalog, and publish an anticipated 
release schedule for all statistical reports and reports to 
Congress that are regularly or intermittently released by the 
Commission and will be released during such year.
  (m) Annual Scorecard Reports.--
          (1) In general.--For the 1-year period beginning on 
        January 1st of each year, the Commission shall prepare 
        a report on the performance of the Commission in 
        conducting its proceedings and meeting the deadlines 
        established under subsection (a)(2)(E) and the 
        guidelines established under subsection (a)(2)(F).
          (2) Contents.--Each report required by paragraph (1) 
        shall contain detailed statistics on such performance, 
        including, with respect to each Bureau of the 
        Commission--
                  (A) with respect to each type of filing 
                specified in subsection (a)(2)(E) or 
                (a)(2)(F)--
                          (i) the number of filings that were 
                        pending on the last day of the period 
                        covered by such report;
                          (ii) the number of filings described 
                        in clause (i) for which each applicable 
                        deadline or guideline established under 
                        such subsection was not met and the 
                        average length of time such filings 
                        have been pending; and
                          (iii) for filings that were resolved 
                        during such period, the average time 
                        between initiation and resolution and 
                        the percentage for which each 
                        applicable deadline or guideline 
                        established under such subsection was 
                        met;
                  (B) with respect to proceedings before an 
                administrative law judge--
                          (i) the number of such proceedings 
                        completed during such period; and
                          (ii) the number of such proceedings 
                        pending on the last day of such period; 
                        and
                  (C) the number of independent studies or 
                analyses published by the Commission during 
                such period.
          (3) Publication and submission.--The Commission shall 
        publish and submit to the Committee on Energy and 
        Commerce of the House of Representatives and the 
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 
        the Senate each report required by paragraph (1) not 
        later than the date that is 30 days after the last day 
        of the period covered by such report.
  (n) Definitions.--In this section:
          (1) Amendment.--The term ``amendment'' includes, when 
        used with respect to an existing rule, the deletion of 
        such rule.
          (2) Bipartisan majority.--The term ``bipartisan 
        majority'' means, when used with respect to a group of 
        Commissioners, that such group--
                  (A) is a group of 3 or more Commissioners; 
                and
                  (B) includes, for each political party of 
                which any Commissioner is a member, at least 1 
                Commissioner who is a member of such political 
                party, and, if any Commissioner has no 
                political party affiliation, at least one 
                unaffiliated Commissioner.
          (3) Performance measure.--The term ``performance 
        measure'' means an objective and quantifiable outcome 
        measure or output measure (as such terms are defined in 
        section 1115 of title 31, United States Code).
          (4) Program activity.--The term ``program activity'' 
        has the meaning given such term in section 1115 of 
        title 31, United States Code, except that such term 
        also includes any annual collection or distribution or 
        related series of collections or distributions by the 
        Commission of an amount that is greater than or equal 
        to $100,000,000.
          (5) Other definitions.--The terms ``agency action'', 
        ``ex parte communication'', and ``rule'' have the 
        meanings given such terms in section 551 of title 5, 
        United States Code.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

                              ----------                              


                           PUBLIC LAW 108-494

    AN ACT To amend the National Telecommunications and Information 
   Administration Organization Act to facilitate the reallocation of 
 spectrum from governmental to commercial users; to improve, enhance, 
and promote the Nation's homeland security, public safety, and citizen 
 activated emergency response capabilities through the use of enhanced 
    911 services, to further upgrade Public Safety Answering Point 
  capabilities and related functions in receiving E-911 calls, and to 
support in the construction and operation of a ubiquitous and reliable 
    citizen activated system; and to provide that funds received as 
universal service contributions under section 254 of the Communications 
  Act of 1934 and the universal service support programs established 
  pursuant thereto are not subject to certain provisions of title 31, 
  United States Code, commonly known as the Antideficiency Act, for a 
                            period of time.



           *       *       *       *       *       *       *
TITLE III--UNIVERSAL SERVICE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


SEC. 302. APPLICATION OF CERTAIN TITLE 31 PROVISIONS TO UNIVERSAL 
                    SERVICE FUND.

  (a) In General.--During the period beginning on the date of 
enactment of this Act and ending on [December 31, 2016] 
December 31, 2020, section 1341 and subchapter II of chapter 15 
of title 31, United States Code, do not apply--
          (1) to any amount collected or received as Federal 
        universal service contributions required by section 254 
        of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254), 
        including any interest earned on such contributions; 
        nor
          (2) to the expenditure or obligation of amounts 
        attributable to such contributions for universal 
        service support programs established pursuant to that 
        section.
  (b) Post-2005 Fulfillment of Protected Obligations.--Section 
1341 and subchapter II of chapter 15 of title 31, United States 
Code, do not apply after [December 31, 2016] December 31, 2020, 
to an expenditure or obligation described in subsection (a)(2) 
made or authorized during the period described in subsection 
(a).

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


                            DISSENTING VIEWS

                              ----------                              


Dissenting Views on H.R. 2583, the ``Federal Communications Commission 
                      Process Reform Act of 2015''

    Congress and the House Energy and Commerce Committee have 
had a long-standing interest in process reform at the Federal 
Communications Commission (FCC). Our efforts in the last 
Congress were bipartisan in nature, with Members on both sides 
thoughtfully examining concerns and developing appropriate 
solutions.
    A different approach, however, was taken this Congress. 
Rather than work from the carefully negotiated, bipartisan 
language addressing FCC process reform that passed the House in 
2014, the Republicans deliberately decided to release several 
discussion draft bills at the opening of the 114th Congress to 
retaliate against and effectively punish the Commission for 
adopting an order titled and widely known as Protecting and 
Promoting the Open Internet (docketed at the FCC under GN 
Docket No. 14-28).
    Our Committee's Republicans have vehemently opposed the 
Open Internet Order and made it one of their highest-priority 
targets. Republicans returned to negotiate in good faith on 
bipartisan principles and language addressing process reform 
only after Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats offered our 
alternatives to the three Republican proposals, which are 
described briefly below and in greater detail later on in these 
views. Much of the platform for bipartisan agreement came from 
understandings and legislative text we had agreed to as we 
neared the end of the 113th Congress.
    While we appreciate that Committee Republicans have adopted 
some Democratic suggestions to improve on H.R. 2583, we cannot 
support this bill, as it continues to include other very ill-
advised provisions. Specifically, we object to those amendments 
that would require the FCC to publish (1) rules (but not 
explanatory text) within 24 hours after adoption by the 
Commission, (2) draft Commission items, and (3) a list of items 
taken up by FCC staff under delegated authority, 48 hours 
before action.
    These provisions are designed to slow the work of the FCC, 
potentially cause conflicts in law, and create confusion for 
stakeholders. We believe that rather than punitively slowing 
the FCC down, FCC process reform should make the FCC faster, 
more efficient, and more transparent.

                               BACKGROUND

    The FCC is an independent federal agency established by the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act). The FCC 
issues rules consistent with the requirements of the 
Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
    The APA applies to all federal executive departments and 
independent federal agencies. Congress enacted the APA to 
establish consistency and predictability and to provide an 
opportunity for the public to participate in agency decision-
making across the federal government.
A. FCC progress in reforming Agency process
    FCC Chairman Wheeler has made it a priority, since the 
beginning of his tenure in November 2013, to improve the 
efficiency and transparency of the FCC's processes. Immediately 
upon taking office, Chairman Wheeler directed a top advisor to 
develop process reform recommendations. Initial recommendations 
included streamlining agency processes and data collections; 
eliminating or streamlining outdated rules; improving 
interactions with external stakeholders; and improving the 
internal management of the agency.\1\ The Commission sought 
comment from stakeholders on the proposed recommendations, and 
the FCC is actively working toward implementing reforms.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Federal Communications Commission, Report on FCC Process Reform 
(Feb. 14, 2014) (online at: www.fcc.gov/article/da-14-199a2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The FCC also has made measurable progress in significantly 
reducing its backlog of pending petitions, applications, 
complaints, and requests. Since May 2014, the volume of items 
pending before the agency for more than six months has been 
reduced by over 44 percent.\2\ In addition, the FCC has 
prioritized releasing its decisions to the public as quickly as 
possible; 85 percent of items are publicly released within two 
business days of adoption. Building on these efforts, Chairman 
Wheeler announced a new Process Reform Task Force in April 2015 
that will consider additional reform proposals and include 
staff from the other Commissioners' offices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\Letter from Chairman Wheeler to Chairman Walden (Apr. 16, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. FCC Process Reform Legislation in the 113th Congress
    H.R. 3675, introduced in the 113th Congress, would have 
removed the FCC from the predictability of existing APA rules. 
Administrative Law experts testified that by removing the FCC 
from the standards of the APA, the bill, as introduced, could 
have created significant uncertainty, litigation risk, and 
higher transaction costs.\3\ As a result of bipartisan 
negotiations in Committee, Democrats were able to address 
several areas of concern in the bill as introduced. The final 
bill required the FCC to examine a number of potential process 
reforms and was reported out of the Energy and Commerce 
Committee, and passed by the House in March 2014.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Hearing on ``Improving 
FCC Process,'' Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, 113th 
Cong. (July 11, 2013).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ANALYSIS OF H.R. 2583, THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION PROCESS 
                           REFORM ACT OF 2015

    The following is a brief summary and analysis of the 
legislation.
A. Summary of H.R. 2583, as introduced
    H.R. 2583 was introduced on May 29, 2015, and reported 
favorably from the Energy and Commerce Committee, as amended, 
on June 3, 2015. The major provisions of the introduced bill 
would require the FCC to:
          (1) Complete a rulemaking proceeding to adopt 
        procedural rule changes to maximize opportunities for 
        public participation;
          (2) Complete an inquiry on whether and how the FCC 
        should establish procedures where a bipartisan majority 
        of commissioners can place an item on an agenda, as 
        well as other procedural changes including establishing 
        deadlines for application processing;
          (3) Provide information on the FCC webpage regarding 
        budget;
          (4) Create a consumer complaint database;
          (5) Modify FOIA performance; and (6) Release annual 
        performance reports.
    The bill included a 4-year extension of the Universal 
Service Fund's exemption from the Anti-deficiency, and the bill 
included the text of the FCC Collaboration Act (H.R. 1396), 
which was introduced by Representative Eshoo. H.R. 1396 would 
allow two or more commissioners to discuss FCC business outside 
of an FCC open meeting, but also provides sufficient safeguards 
to protect against abuse.
    H.R. 1396 was one of the specific Democratic process reform 
proposals discussed during the Communications and Technology 
Subcommittee's hearing on April 30, 2015. The origin of the 
bill dates back to December 2009, and has had bipartisan 
support since the 112th Congress. It previously has been 
included as part of the broader FCC Process Reform bill. 
Unfortunately, the reported bill language delays the 
effectiveness of this important provision until after the other 
reforms are implemented without any substantive reason for such 
delay. In fact, the FCC Process Reform bill from 2012 did not 
include a delay in the implementation of the FCC Collaboration 
Act provisions. Such a delay appears to be arbitrary and 
contrary to the witness testimony from the May 15, 2015, 
Subcommittee hearing supporting immediate implementation of the 
FCC Collaboration Act.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Hearing on ``Improving 
FCC Transparency, Part II,'' Subcommittee on Communications and 
Technology, 114th Cong. (May 15, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Democratic provisions added at Full Committee Markup.

    At the April 30, 2015 Communications and Technology 
Subcommittee hearing on FCC transparency, Democratic members 
suggested several reforms to FCC process designed to ensure 
that the FCC remain fast, efficient, and transparent without 
creating an unnecessary risk of litigation for the agency. The 
Republicans recognized the value of the Democratic suggestions, 
agreeing to offer an amendment that incorporated the ideas of 
Representatives Clarke, Loebsack, and Matsui.
    The Democratic amendment requires the FCC to report 
quarterly to Congress and to post, on its website, data on the 
total number of decisions pending, categorized by bureau, the 
type of request, the length of time pending, as well as a list 
of pending Congressional investigations and their costs to the 
agency.\5\ Notwithstanding the impressive progress the FCC has 
made toward issuing rules and closing pending matters in a more 
timely fashion, the best way to ensure that future commissions 
continue this trend is by holding the agency accountable to the 
public. The public deserves timely responses from the FCC and 
information as to whether the FCC is acting on an application 
or a request for new rules. The Democratic amendment would seek 
to do that.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\See New Section 13(a)(2)(D) which would amend the Communications 
Act (contained in Section 2(a) of H.R. 2583).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The amendment also requires the FCC to coordinate with the 
Small Business Administration to develop recommendations to 
improve small business participation in FCC proceedings.\6\ 
Small business inclusion is critical, as the FCC oversees 
industries that account for one sixth of the economy, including 
countless small businesses. Small businesses in every community 
throughout the country are impacted by many of the decisions 
and rules that the FCC adopts, and the voices of small 
businesses should be heard with greater consistency and 
regularity at the FCC.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\See Section 6 of H.R. 2583.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Finally, the amendment requires the FCC chairman, as the 
head of the agency, to post the Commission's internal policies 
and procedures on the FCC website and to disclose any 
modifications to those procedures within 48 hours.\7\ Public 
participation at the FCC is at an all-time high with millions 
of Americans reaching out to the FCC. Consumers should have as 
much visibility into the operations of the FCC as large 
corporate interests and their well-compensated legal and other 
professional services firms.
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    \7\See New Section 13(g) (contained in Section 2(a) of H.R. 2583).
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    The amendment, which was agreed to by voice vote, will 
enhance the process reforms included in H.R. 2583 without 
compromising existing FCC processes or penalizing the FCC. 
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for other Republican 
amendments that were added at the Full Committee markup and are 
treated below in greater detail.

C. Republican provisions added at Full Committee Markup

    Republican members of the Committee also offered several 
amendments that defeat the purported intent of the FCC process 
reform bill--to make the FCC a more efficient agency.
            1. Rep. Kinzinger Amendment
    The Kinzinger amendment requires that the FCC publish on 
its website any action the Commission plans to vote on three 
weeks prior to that vote.\8\ This proposal echoes a letter the 
Republicans sent to FCC Chairman Wheeler in January 2015, 
asking him to release his draft network neutrality order before 
the other Commissioners had an opportunity to review it.\9\
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    \8\See New Section 13(d) (contained in Section 2(a) of H.R. 2583).
    \9\Letter from Rep. Fred Upton. Rep. Greg Walden, and Senator John 
Thune to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (Jan. 22, 2015).
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    A requirement that the FCC release pre-decisional drafts 
runs counter to the policy underlying the exemption to the 
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for internal deliberative 
processes of an agency.\10\ By creating a potential conflict of 
law with FOIA, this bill could increase the risk of litigation 
for many FCC actions.
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    \10\See Department of Justice Guide to Freedom of Information Act, 
366 available at http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/
2014/07/23/exemption5_1.pdf (explaining that the Freedom of Information 
Act protects inter-agency work product to ``(1) to encourage open, 
frank discussions on matters of policy between subordinates and 
superiors; (2) to protect against premature disclosure of proposed 
policies before they are actually adopted; and (3) to protect against 
public confusion that might result from disclosure of reasons and 
rationales that were not in fact ultimately the grounds for an agency's 
action.'').
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    Posting draft documents could also spark an unending cycle 
of lobbying on successive draft items. Specifically, any new 
arguments raised in the record in response to the draft text 
could force the agency to trigger a new round of notice and 
comment. These lobbying cycles could undermine the ability of 
minority Commissioners to negotiate changes in a draft once the 
draft has been made public. Democrats believe this amendment 
would impose an inappropriate policy on the FCC that would 
significantly affect the Commission's ability to make final 
decisions.
            2. Rep. Ellmers Amendment
    The Ellmers amendment requires that the FCC publish, on its 
website, any changes to the Commission's rules within 24 hours 
of adoption.\11\ This requirement could potentially conflict 
with the APA, which requires an agency to release explanatory 
text along with any new rules.\12\ For each provision that 
appears in the Code of Federal Regulations, the explanatory 
text is vital to understanding the actual rules. This bill 
would separate the two, creating confusion and uncertainty for 
stakeholders. Again, Democrats believe that any FCC process 
reforms should enhance the public's ability to understand the 
actions of the FCC, and the Ellmers amendment would do the 
opposite.
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    \11\See New Section 13(e) (contained in Section 2(a) of H.R. 2583).
    \12\5 U.S.C. 553(c) (requiring agencies to ``incorporate in the 
rules adopted a concise general statement of their basis and 
purpose''); see also Federal Register Guidance at https://
www.federalregister.gov/uploads/2011/01/the_rulemaking_process.pdf 
(instructing agencies to include a number of explanatory sections along 
with new rules).
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            3. Rep. Latta Amendment
    The Latta amendment requires that the FCC publish 
information on its website 48 hours before making a decision on 
``delegated authority.''\13\ Delegated authority allows the 
heads of FCC Bureaus and Offices to make decisions so long as 
new legal issues are not presented. As a practical matter, 
delegated authority is overwhelmingly used to conduct the 
routine business of the FCC, such as processing applications 
and issuing public notices. Thousands of actions are taken on 
delegated authority on a yearly basis. These actions are not 
final until they are released by the FCC, and the FCC can 
decide not to take an action at any time before it releases the 
item.
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    \13\See Section 7 of H.R. 2583.
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    Requiring the Commission to post a description of potential 
actions before those actions are finalized could create 
confusion and may cause unwarranted administrative burdens on 
the FCC. Under its informal procedures, Commissioners are 
notified 48 hours before Bureaus take action on items that the 
Chairman's office believes may be of interest to the 
Commissioners. This procedure is designed to balance the need 
to keep Commissioners informed while not overwhelming them with 
notice about each of the thousands of routine actions taken by 
the bureaus.
    The actions contemplated in the Latta amendment go far 
beyond the informal policies in place at the Commission. Adding 
the new notice requirement contemplated by the amendment could 
have the perverse effect of slowing down the work of the FCC. 
Stakeholders could face uncertainty and longer wait times for 
previously routine decisions. Democrats believe that such a 
requirement defeats the purported intent of the FCC process 
reform bill--to make the FCC a more efficient agency.

D. Keeping Our Campaigns Honest (KOCH) Act Amendment

    An integral part of the Democratic alternative to promoting 
process reform and increasing transparency, known as the KOCH 
Act (H.R. 2125), was introduced by Rep. Yarmuth on April 30, 
2015. Although it was discussed at the legislative hearings, it 
was not considered at all for action at either the Subcommittee 
or full Committee markups of H.R. 2583.
    The KOCH Act would increase transparency for TV viewers and 
radio listeners by requiring the FCC to modify its sponsorship 
identification rules to mandate the disclosure of significant 
donors to entities or persons purchasing issue advertisements. 
Transparency is an important issue, and it should not stop at 
the doors of the FCC. The public deserves to know who is paying 
for the advertisements they see on TV and hear on the radio, 
and the KOCH Act's simple direction to the FCC would make such 
transparency a reality.
    We appreciate that the Majority attempted to work in a 
bipartisan manner and included some of the Democratic proposals 
within the reported bill. But due to the adoption of Republican 
amendments offered by Representatives Kinzinger, Ellmers, and 
Latta, and the adverse and severe impacts such provisions would 
have on the FCC's ability to operate quickly, efficiently, with 
integrity, and in a transparent manner, we strongly dissent 
from the majority views that are expressed in the Committee 
report.

                                Frank Pallone, Jr.,
                                            Ranking Member,
                                  Committee on Energy and Commerce.
                                     Anna G. Eshoo,
                                            Ranking Member,
                     Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

                                  [all]