FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly

The practice of printing hard-copies of the “FCC Record” should be eliminated. To be crystal clear, I am not suggesting that we keep its contents or information from the public.  On the contrary, I suggest that it makes little sense to continue to publish paper copies when other mechanisms are more consumer friendly, cost-efficient, and easier to access.  Instead, the Commission should make its documents centrally located and easier to find for interested parties electronically, making paper copies of the Record unnecessary on a going forward basis.  If Encyclopedia Britannica coul

As the Federal Communications Commission begins to explore potential changes to its regulations for rate-of-return carriers, we both wholeheartedly support action to curb impermissible expenditures.  The public trust is violated, if or when bad actors take extensive leeway in defining what is acceptable for reimbursement by the FCC and ratepayers.  Past stories highlight spending on personal mansions, fancy boats, lavish parties, and country club memberships, just to name a few.

In responde to a National Security Council memo urging the Trump administration to consider extraordinary efforts to clear the way for 5G, FCC commissioner responded:

I posit that the Federal Communications Commission needs to reconsider the ineffective and burdensome requirements currently imposed on our nation’s broadcasters to air a certain amount of educational and informational children’s programming on a weekly basis, colloquially referred to as Kid Vid.  While Kid Vid rules (minus the reporting requirements) apply to noncommercial educational stations like PBS, such programming is tied to the mission of these stations and PBS does not need a mandate to continue providing such content.  In fact, children’s programming on PBS is only expected to inc

While I previously proposed fixes to improve the circulation process by making the documents public and addressing what amounts to stale items and those converted to Open Meeting items, we also need to update and improve the process for voting circulation items.  Unlike items disposed of at the Commission’s monthly Open Meetings, items circulated to Commissioners for consideration outside of the meetings (those on the Circulation List) have no voting deadline until they enter “must vote” status.

After the painful and demoralizing 2015 decision to insert government regulations into the middle of the greatest man-made invention of our time, I was never quite sure that this day would come. The Commission had no enforceable net neutrality rules prior to December 2010. That unregulated regime resulted in the creation of Google in 1998, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, and Twitter in 2006. There is also no concrete evidence of network or consumer harm.  

[Commentary] The Constitution’s Commerce Clause provides Congress with the power to regulate interstate commerce. Given that the internet permits consumers and businesses to connect to others in different states (as well as countries), broadband services are inherently interstate services and must therefore be protected from state and local interference.

I thank the Chairman for circulating the items for the December meeting and look forward to reading each one.The time has come to overturn the market disrupting net neutrality and common carrier regulations that sacrificed decades of precedent and the independence of the agency for political ends while doing nothing to protect actual consumers. The Internet was a vibrant place of commerce and public discourse before the rules ever took effect and will continue to flourish after we discard this unnecessary and harmful regulatory overhang.

The barriers preventing providers from bringing fixed and wireless broadband throughout our nation have increased despite the existence of this committee. The barriers being imposed are not caused by

Defending the First Amendment: I think you will find the current Commission to be a great partner in the effort to ensure a free press, primarily by not intervening in the area.

"Fake News” Definition & Use: But moving on to a more active controversy at the moment, it has been argued by some that urgent action must be taken to rid our media and society from the plague of “fake news.” However you want to define the “problem,” we need to be looking closer at certain highly suspect solutions being proposed and implemented.

Questionable Policing by Online Companies: Asking people to think critically about the effect of algorithm skewing is far afield from imposing government edicts and false remedies for broadband providers.

Free Market Remedy: So what is a proper solution? It should come as no surprise to anyone that, if fake news is indeed such a big problem, I would recommend a more free market approach to solving it.