FCC Oversight Hearing Starts Out Hot

The Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee began with some fireworks. "Under the current power structure at the FCC the Chairman has incredible authority that none of the other commissioners has because the Chairman alone controls access to FCC information, he or she can call in their own 'validators' to get the inside track and become a well-tuned chorus of support for their pet policies," said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) in his opening statement. “'Friends of the Chairman's get special perks to weigh in and access information that the rest of the public doesn’t get to see, and that other commissioners can’t even discuss. Commissioner [Michael] O’Rielly exposes this charade for what it is in his testimony. None of us on this committee would tolerate the insult to our First Amendment rights that the commissioners at the FCC must suffer at the hands of the Chairman." Chairman Walden also said the FCC was not "some venture capital firm" but an agency that reported to Congress -- FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler formerly headed such a firm. Chairman Wheeler was in the room as one of two witnesses at the hearing.

When House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) got her chance to speak, she said she did not like Chairman Wheeler being welcomed to the committee and used as a piñata. She upbraided Chairman Walden for using terms like "charade" and suggested the reform proposals were a way to get back at the FCC for Republican's failure to stop it from approving Title II regulations for Internet service providers. House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Rep Frank Pallone (D-NJ) echoed her concerns.

In his testimony, Chairman Wheeler pointed out that the average time between an order's release during his stewardship had been 1.8 days, versus 8.7 days under former FCC Chairman Michael Powell and 10.7 days under former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, both Republicans. He also said that the number of items decided on delegated authority, which he pointed out were implementing decisions the commission had already voted on, was at a 15-year low. Chairman Wheeler took aim at the Republican reforms bills, while pledging to produce some reforms out of the FCC's own reform task force--created in March--by the time Congress returned from its August recess. Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who was the other witness at the hearing, leveled his process criticism, but also talked about working with the Chairman to clear out thousands of indecency complaints to help further up station license renewals.