The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
US House of Representatives
As reported previously (see The Regulatory Mix dated 12/ 4/13), the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee held an FCC oversight hearing on December 12, 2013. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden noted that the FCC is “tasked with fostering some of the most important parts of our national economy. Among them, the telecommunications industry, the video distribution industries, and the Internet. Given the economic significance of these industries, the charge from Congress to encourage competition, license our national spectrum assets, and facilitate technological advances is one that must be discharged with transparency, accountability, and a long view of the technological landscape.” You can read the statements of the FCC Commissioners here.
On December 11, 2013, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced two bipartisan pieces of legislation from the Communications and Technology Subcommittee that aim to improve Federal Communications Commission processes and improve federal spectrum use. Among other things, H.R. 3675, the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act would require the FCC to: survey the marketplace before initiating a rulemaking (with exceptions for deregulatory rulemakings and for good cause); issue Notices of Proposed Rulemaking within three years of Notices of Inquiry to ensure they remain current; include the specific text of proposed rules and to provide at least 30 days each for comments and replies; and adopt rules within three years of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking that are a “logical outgrowth” of the proposed rules.
