Sens Have Issues With FCC Office Closures

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sens Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Susan Collins (R-ME) have told the FCC they are worried that his plan to close two-thirds of its field offices and cut almost half of the field agent staff could "jeopardize the agency's ability to prevent spectrum interference." They are particularly concerned about the FCC closing the Boston (MA) office, which serves New England. Chairman Wheeler proposed the closures and centralizing of their functions in the FCC's 2016 budget as a way to save money that he said would increase efficiency and not compromise the FCC's important interference monitoring.