Democratic Reps Push FCC's Wheeler on Public File Access Pledge

A quartet of powerful Democratic Reps has asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to act on a pledge they say he made to their caucus recently and make TV station public inspection files—and cable, satellite and radio files when the requirement kicks in for them—machine readable so they can be more easily searched and inspected. That came in a letter dated April 29 from House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and two of the most prominent voices on the issue of public file and political ad disclosure transparency, Rep Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Rep John Yarmuth (D-KY).

They urged Chairman Wheeler to begin the process "in the near term" and that they agree with the chairman that the FCC "can and should" take action. The Reps, who have been pushing for more transparency on political ads and their funders in particular, said they were encouraged by Chairman Wheeler's "specific commitment" to make public files machine readable. TV stations have to upload those files to an FCC database, but do not have to make them machine readable.