Statement of Commissioner Rosenworcel on Office of Economics and Analytics

[Oct 25's] announcement marks the start of the largest Federal Communications Commission reorganization in over a decade. As the new Office of Economics and Analytics gets off the ground I want to offer two ideas to ensure that its work is credible and consistent with the public interest. First, the work of this office must include peer review. It is unacceptable that so much of the recent economic work of this agency was not subject to any standard of peer review.  Second, the work of this office must be transparent. The FCC needs to be honest about how much of the economic data presented to it is advocacy. We must avoid the risk of relying on numbers masquerading as fact when they simply add up to an effort to champion a desired outcome. Just as our oversight committee in the United States House of Representatives requires, we must ask that those who put forward economic studies that are filed in our proceedings to disclose who they are truly representing.