FCC one member away from being out of commission

With Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) blocking President Barack Obama's two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the five-member board is set to begin the new year with the bare minimum of members needed to take official action.

The FCC needs the presence of three members for official agency business. "So if one of the members is out of town or disabled, the commission is unable to act," Andrew Schwartzman, policy director for public interest law firm the Media Access Project, said. Any one of the commissioners could block a vote by refusing to show up, but Schwartzman noted that would be an extreme action that he doesn't believe has ever happened at the FCC. The agency does not compile data on the number of commissioners serving at any given time, but Schwartzman said he believes the last time the commission had only three members was for a several-month period in the early 1990s. (Dec 23)