Industry Influence on an FCC Advisory Panel

After high-tech phone network outages hit major US cities in 1991, the Federal Communications Commission chartered an advisory group to help the agency troubleshoot emerging technology issues. Yet instead of helping solve problems, this industry-dominated group has at times been a barrier to strengthening the security of America’s communications. 

The group is now called the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, and is known within the commission by its acronym, CSRIC, pronounced “scissor-ick.”  The council’s current charter calls for a mixture of representatives from the government, non-profit consumer advocates, and the private sector to “balance the expertise and viewpoints” on technical topics. In addition, the council falls under the purview of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a statute that sets certain minimum transparency and membership requirements. The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that memberships of advisory committees “be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee”—potentially putting the group on the wrong side of the law. Our analysis found that the council, which is typically chartered for two-year sessions and whose members are appointed by the FCC chairman, is dominated by industry influences and falling short of legal requirements. Since March 2011, when cybersecurity officially became part of the group’s mission, there have been four iterations of the council. Each of those times, more than half of its members represented private sector interests, either as a direct employee of a for-profit company or via affiliation with an industry trade group.