Heller Calls on Commerce Committee to Take Up FCC Reform

Press Release

Today U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV), called on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John Rockefeller to hold hearings on his legislation to reform the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), making it more transparent and responsive to industry groups. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the companion bills reforming the FCC Process earlier today.

"If we are going to get Americans working again, Congress must take action and remove the weight of big government from our nation's innovators and entrepreneurs. Stifling the technology sector with onerous regulations will only impede new job creation at a time when we need jobs most. I call on Chairman Rockefeller to take these issues up in the Commerce Committee. At a minimum, we should bring the FCC commissioners before the Committee and hold an oversight hearing on how the FCC conducts itself. I congratulate Congressman Walden for successfully passing these important bills out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee," said Senator Heller.

Heller is the author of S.1780, the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2011, and S.1817, the Telecommunications Jobs Act of 2011. The House versions of these bills passed overwhelmingly out of Committee.

Legislative Summary

Protecting Jobs by Ensuring Regulatory Benefits Outweigh Costs

* Require the FCC to survey the state of the marketplace through a Notice of Inquiry before initiating new rulemakings to ensure the Commission has an up-to-date understanding of the rapidly evolving and job-creating telecommunications marketplace.
* Require the FCC to identify a market failure, consumer harm, or regulatory barrier to investment before adopting economically significant rules. After identifying such an issue, the Commission must demonstrate that the benefits of regulation outweigh the costs while taking into account the need for regulation to impose the least burden on society.
* Require the FCC to establish performance measures for all program activities so that when the Commission spends hundreds of millions of federal or consumer dollars, Congress and the public have a straightforward means of seeing what bang we're getting for our buck.
* Apply to the FCC, an independent agency, the regulatory reform principles that President Obama endorsed in his January 2011 Executive Order.
* Prevent regulatory overreach by requiring any conditions imposed on transactions to be within the FCC's existing authority and be tailored to transaction-specific harms.

Promoting Transparency, Fairness, and Efficiency in Commission Operations

* Enhance consistency and transparency in the Commission's operations by requiring the FCC to establish and disclose its own internal procedures for:
o adequate review and deliberation regarding pending orders,
o publication of orders before open meetings,
o initiation of items by bipartisan majorities, and
o minimum public review periods for statistical reports and ex parte communications.
* Require the FCC to establish its own "shot clocks" so that parties know how quickly they can expect action in certain proceedings and provide a schedule for when reports would be released.
* Empower the FCC to operate more efficiently through reform of the "sunshine" rules, allowing a bipartisan majority of Commissioners to meet for collaborative discussions subject to transparency safeguards.

Simplifying Reporting Requirements

* Consolidate eight, separate congressionally mandated reports on the communications industry into a single comprehensive report with a focus on intermodal competition, deploying communications capabilities to unserved communities, and eliminating regulatory barriers.

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