FCC Reform: Return to the Rule of Law

[Commentary] Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) should be applauded for doggedly holding a Congressional hearing on the much needed review, reform, and reinventing of Federal Communications Commission procedure and process.

He is expected to introduce legislation similar to the FCC Process Reform Act and FCC Consolidated Reporting Act that passed the House of Representatives last year, only to die in the Senate. In the meantime, the FCC should not wait for legislation to pass to adopt some simple, common sense reforms of their own. In fact, first they just need to return to the “rule of law,” not the “rule of man” (With two female Commissioners, I suppose this will have to be the “Rule of Women” now!). Too often the personality of the agency leadership has resulted in expansion – broad expansion in some cases – of the specific legal authority granted by Congress to the FCC. The office of FCC Chairman has been expanded far beyond the letter of the law. It needs to be curtailed by self-control, aside from whether a new law is passed.

[Deborah Taylor Tate is a former FCC commissioner]