Remarks of Commissioner Ajit Pai, Before The Federal Communications Bar Association

On February 21, 2013, Commissioner Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission delivered remarks before a luncheon of the Federal Communications Bar Association. During his address, he emphasized the importance of the FCC being as nimble as the industry it oversees so that regulatory inertia does not impede technological progress or deter innovation. He then offered a number of proposals for improving the FCC’s internal procedures and allowing the FCC to act more efficiently.

He said the FCC should:

• Handle applications for review by instituting something similar to the U.S. Supreme Court’s certiorari process.
• Expand the categories of small transactions that qualify for streamlined treatment, including mergers of geographically adjacent rural carriers.
• Circulate draft order addressing forbearance petitions at least four weeks before the one-year statutory deadline and require a vote of the full Commission to extend that one-year deadline.
• Set internal deadlines.
• Create an FCC Dashboard on the Commission’s website to track the FCC’s performance on key metrics like waiver requests, license renewal applications, and consumer complaints.

He suggested Congress should:

• Consolidate the FCC’s reporting obligations to Congress.
• Prohibit the FCC from adopting new rules based on Notices of Proposed Rulemaking that are more than three years old.
• Modify the Sunshine Act to allow for more collaborative and efficient Commission decision-making.
• Modernize statutory provisions addressing application fees.