Public Inspection File Rule: FCC Asks If It's Really Necessary

The Federal Communications Commission has invited comments on whether or not the local public inspection file requirement is really necessary. Since the FCC has assiduously ignored – for more than five years – a petition for rulemaking seeking the abolition of those requirements, this invitation should puzzle some and thrill others. As it turns out, the obligations imposed by the public file rules constitute “information collections” (per the Paperwork Reduction Act), and we all know what that means: periodically (like every three years) the FCC must justify such requirements to the Office of Management and Budget.

The current OMB approval is set to expire on September 30, 2011, which means that, if the FCC plans to keep those rules on the books, it’s got to re-justify the rules to OMB’s satisfaction. That process entails two opportunities for public comment stretching over at least 90 days. With less than 180 days to go before expiration, the FCC has now started that process. Among the questions on which the FCC is now inviting comment are:

a) whether the public file rules are “necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the [collected] information shall have practical utility”; and
b) the accuracy of the Commission’s burden estimate.

The FCC will be accepting comments through June 17, 2011. After that, the FCC will bundle up any and all comments submitted and send them over to OMB, along with a statement in support of the rules (assuming that the FCC is not persuaded by the comments to drop the rules entirely). OMB will then provide an additional 30-day comment period. If OMB declines to approve the rules, the FCC will be unable to enforce them.