FCC Reform: Let's Start with the Enforcement Bureau

Federal Communications Commission reform is a topic of much discussion these days. Indeed, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has already initiated some important process reforms and we anticipate that more are coming. Clearer and more transparent processes will lead to better regulatory results. We have also been contemplating reform and will, from time to time, be posting our ideas for regulatory and structural reform at the FCC.

We start with some ideas for reforming process at the Enforcement Bureau – a Bureau that operated for many years with professionalism but whose recent practices have been marked increasingly by bad process, novel and tenuous theories of liability, and Notices of Apparent Liability (NALs) that languish after adoption. There are a number of areas where we believe the enforcement process can and should be significantly improved.