Gov performance

On July 6, 2018, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly wrote to Mikel Schwab, Civil Chief, Assitant US Attorney for the Department of Justice in the Districts of Guam & the NMI, regarding 911 Fee Diversion.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides quarterly statutory reports to Congress on the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This report covers activities from January 1 to March 31, 2018. NTIA continues to protect taxpayer investments by proactively engaging with these grant recipients to monitor project activities and grant compliance. Each quarter, the active BTOP recipients also report their financial and project performance. NTIA analyzes these reports closely to monitor progress and compliance.

Network neutrality may be dead, but questions remain about how seriously the Federal Communications Commission considered comments from the public. "To put it simply, there is evidence in the FCC's files that fraud has occurred and the FCC is telling law enforcement and victims of identity theft that it is not going to help," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in Dec. "Failure to investigate this corrupted record undermines our process for seeking public input in the digital age."

It is a true honor to have the chance to speak before members of the relatively new Cloud Communications Alliance....During times of change, an agency must refrain from subjecting new technologies to old regulatory structures.At a minimum, an agency should not act unless it is clear that the agency has authority, that there is evidence of a market failure warranting intervention, and that the benefits of acting outweigh the costs. Otherwise, regulators risk suppressing further entry, innovation, and investment.

On June 15, 2018, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly wrote to Gov Gina Raimondo (D-RI) and Rhode Island General Assembly Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello (D-RI-15) to follow-up on the issue of 9-1-1 fee diversion. He wrote, "To put it bluntly, your state is diverting 60 percent of the funds intended and necessary for public safety purposes to your general fund, and no amount of relabeling will resolve this reality...I am writing, again, to implore you to end Rhode Island's fee diversion practices." 

On June 19, 2018, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly wrote to Charles Salle, Deputy Director of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee. He was responding to a phone call Commissioner O'Rielly received addressing why the state of NM diverted 9-1-1 fees in 2016.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray faced lawmakers to defend a report on the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, which rebuked the conduct of former director James B.

President Donald Trump said that he had been “totally exonerated” by a new Justice Department report that is highly critical of several key FBI figures in the Hillary Clinton email probe, including former FBI Director James Comey. The report by the department’s inspector general offered no findings regarding the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller III into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election.

Former FBI director James B. Comey was “insubordinate” in his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, a critical Justice Department report concluded on June 14.  But the report, by the department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, does not challenge the decision not to prosecute Clinton. Nor does it conclude that political bias at the FBI influenced that decision, the officials said. “We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations,” the report said.

National Telecommunications & Information Administration administrator David Redl warned Congress that the "security and stability" or the internet are at risk due to pressure to comply with the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect May 25. That warning came June 13 in the Senate Commerce Committee's first oversight hearing of the NTIA under Redl, its new administrator.  Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said the committee was also looking at the GDPR and would seek Redl's input.