Chairman Blackburn Takes Aim at FCC Noncom Disclosure Decision

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has introduced a bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to roll-back a decision requiring board members of noncommercial broadcast outlets to provide ownership information to the commission, party of a larger decision on broadcast ownership disclosures. The bill has yet to get a name or bill number, but it has the outgoing Democratic FCC's number. It would require the FCC to revoke parts, but not all of an FCC decision, a targeted approach Congressional Republicans could use to tailor already-passed FCC regulations.

The FCC Media Bureau recently denied a request by noncommercial broadcast groups to revisit its decision. A phalanx of noncommercial broadcasting entities asked the FCC to reconsider and reverse the January 2016 order that was billed as improving the data collected from broadcasters to help the commission analyze ownership and diversity issues.