Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - December 14, 2009)

By Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. Warner):

S. 2881. A bill to provide greater technical resources to FCC Commissioners; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today, along with Senator WARNER, to introduce legislation that provides greater technical resources to the Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission.

Specifically, this legislation simply proposes modifying existing law so that each Commissioner may hire an additional staff member--an electrical engineer or computer scientist--to provide in-depth technical consultation. Currently, the statute allows each Commissioner to appoint only three professional assistants and a secretary. Typically, these professional assistants have been legal advisors covering the wireline, wireless, and cable/media sectors. However, in order to properly regulate communications, Commissioners must be well-versed in both the legal and technical aspects of the issues.

With the rapid advancement of technologies and innovation within the telecommunications industry, it is imperative that Commissioners have the technical expertise on their staff to make well informed regulatory decisions. As one Commissioner recently remarked, ``not one of us is an engineer. Do you really want us making these highly technical decisions?'' We should not expect every Commissioner to be an engineer, but having one on staff is prudent. Having both technical and legal advisors provides the requisite complement of staff experience for the Commissioners to properly address increasingly complex technical and legal matters.

While the Office of Engineering and Technology, OET, has been and will continue to be a valuable resource, there has been concern in the technical community about the depletion of engineering expertise at the Commission. From 1995 to 2001, the FCC's engineering staff dropped by more than 20 percent. And at the time, more than 40 percent of the engineering staff were to be eligible for retirement between 2001 and 2005. More recently, the FCC's Managing Director has identified that the Commission has a shortage of network engineers.

In addition, several engineering membership and standards bodies have weighed in voicing concern about the lack of technical depth at the FCC. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE, the largest technical professional organization in the world, sent a letter in June of 2008 to then-Chairman Martin writing ``despite the generally excellent nature of its internal staff, given all of the technical issues within the FCC's jurisdiction, it may be prudent to seek means to supplement the internal technical capabilities of the Commission.'' The Society of Broadcast Engineers has outlined that one of its legislative goals for 2009-10 is ``to promote the maintenance or increase of technical expertise within the FCC to ensure that decision-making by the FCC is based on technical investigation, studies and evaluation rather than political expenditures.'' I would like to thank these two organizations for supporting this beneficial legislation.

This bill takes a step towards properly addressing a glaring deficiency by ensuring each Commissioner has a technical expert on staff to provide individual technical advisement. This is absolutely critical given how rapidly technologies are changing and the implications that regulation could have on the underlying technical catalysts of innovation. That is why I sincerely hope that my colleagues join Senator Warner and me in supporting this critical legislation.

Source