Issa to Hold Hearing on FCC-White House Visits
The House Oversight Committee will call in the FCC for a hearing related to the committee’s investigation into White House visits by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. At a book party Wednesday for CEA President Gary Shapiro, Issa told us that the committee would first have a “proper discussion” before moving forward with the hearing. In a letter last month, Issa alleged that Genachowski made 81 visits to the White House between January 2009 and November 2010, timed near events in the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking.
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The Oversight Committee is currently in “discovery mode,” Issa said. “Right now we're asking for answers we've not yet gotten” from the FCC, he said. Once that wraps up, the committee will publish a statement of its findings, and then announce a hearing, he said in an interview. Issa declined to give specific timing.
Issa is looking at whether the FCC was “inappropriate” in its consultations and net neutrality decision, he said. Issa, a longtime critic of the need for net neutrality regulations, said that he realizes other committees have jurisdiction over the FCC and its net neutrality order. But “we own process,” he said. A commission spokesman had no comment beyond Genachowski’s previous statements on the subject. In Feb., he wrote Issa to say that the Office of General Counsel wasn’t aware of any ex parte rule violations on net neutrality rules.
Democrats in the committee have protested Issa’s claims against the FCC. In a memo last month, minority committee staff said Genachowski actually visited the White House 35 times, and many meetings didn’t relate to net neutrality (CD March 29 p7). The FCC also has rebuked Issa, saying the meetings were appropriate and focused on the commission’s entire communications and technology agenda.