The Longstanding FCC Problem with Transparency on the Disposition of Petitions

The right to petition the federal government is one guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. The Federal Communications Commission has implemented this requirement, but all this means nothing if petitions fall into an administrative black hole where they can not be seen, let alone acted on! Petitions apparently go to bureaus and offices and just sit around until someone decides to act on them -- or not. One always has the options of going to the District Court and asking for a writ of mandamus, but that is possibly the only option. Since the existence of these petitions can be secret, it is difficult for interested 3rd parties to find out about them and try to pressure/embarrass the FCC into acting.

Some modest suggestions:

• The FCC create an internal tracking systems for such petitions and report all filings to all commissioners within a month of filing.
• The FCC create a public tracking system, analogous to the FCC Items on Circulation webpage, that documents all petitions more than 3 months old that have not been acted on and makes the text available for public inspection. This need not be a Public Notice requesting comment, just an acknowledgement that the petition has been filed and is under review.