Undermining transparency at the FCC

[Commentary] It can take weeks, and sometimes months, for the Federal Communications Commission to release an order they voted on. Unfortunately, this process is standard operating procedure at the FCC.

The key question is whether the absence of a public text of what the commissioners voted on plus editorial privileges allows for substantive changes in the order or simply fixing typos. Small changes can tilt rules to favor or disadvantage different groups enough to be valuable to someone but not enough to cause an uproar. Such changes should not be possible to make in the shadows.

One simple change to the FCC's rule-making process would address the problem: For final orders, publish the text on which the commissioners will vote before the vote begins. The commission could still grant editorial privileges, but it would then be possible to see what has changed between the vote and the final, published rule.

[Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]