House Lawmakers Bringing Back Benjamin, May, McDowell To Testify on FCC Process
The three witnesses testifying on FCC process overhaul before the House Communications Subcommittee Friday are Stuart Benjamin, associate dean-research at Duke Law; Free State Foundation President Randolph May; and Robert McDowell, former FCC commissioner now with Wiley Rein. Benjamin focuses…
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on telecom law and co-authored Telecommunications Law and Policy. All three witnesses testified on improving FCC process before the same subcommittee in July 2013. The Friday hearing, at 9:15 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, will focus on three draft measures circulated by subcommittee Democrats and a new version of the FCC Process Review Act put together by Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. “Together, these bills aim to further the Subcommittee’s efforts to minimize the potential for procedural failings and abuse, and to improve agency transparency, efficiency, and accountability,” the GOP memo said. The revamped FCC Process Review Act “is the product of several months of bipartisan Subcommittee negotiations and represents a significant step towards a better-functioning agency,” producing “a collaborative process in which the Commission establishes the parameters to achieve congressionally established goals,” it said. “The Commission is charged with setting its own deadlines and minimum comment periods for rules and publication of FCC documents and with developing performance measures for program activities, which will provide parties and the public certainty and accountability. In addition, the required notice of inquiry asks the FCC to seek public comment on particularly complex issues that warrant further examination and improvement.” It would compel an annual scorecard of commission activities and lets FCC commissioners “engage in non-public, collaborative discussions, which currently are prohibited by the Sunshine Act.” The subcommittee has said it plans to mark up process legislation next week.