FCC IG Says He Can’t Hire Armed Agents, Despite Many Requests

The panel also focused on the crash of the agency’s aging Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) after tens of thousands of net neutrality comments were filed (CD July 16 p1).

Criminal investigators are “a very much needed resource at this office” and would allow the OIG to do criminal investigations without help from the Department of Justice and the FBI, Hunt said, as expected based on prepared testimony (CD Sept 17 p16). The FCC OIG has received “excellent support from FBI agents, particularly those in the Washington, D.C., Field Office,” but there have been cases where “the lack of criminal investigative support has slowed and even derailed OIG investigations,” he said. FBI agents and assistant U.S. attorneys “are in constant demand, and we have lost the services of both to other DOJ/FBI priorities,” Hunt said.

Hunt said after long discussions with staff for former Chairman Julius Genachowski, the OIG received permission to post a job announcement seeking criminal investigators and received applications. But after Wheeler took office last year, Hunt said he was told he would not be allowed to hire criminal investigators.

Hiring armed agents poses specific problems for the FCC, an agency official said responding to Hunt’s comments. Wheeler, “as the agency head responsible for the hire,” has looked at the issue closely, the official said on behalf of the chairman’s office. “The question of whether to permit armed employees in our buildings and field offices raises important and complicated questions regarding overall security, employee safety, training, and storage of weapons. The chairman’s office has this matter under consideration, has discussed these concerns with the IG, is consulting other agencies on their practices, and will make his decision once these questions are resolved to his satisfaction.”

Hunt also questioned whether the USF Strike Force Wheeler established duplicates work the OIG should be doing. Wheeler announced the launch of the Strike Force in July (http://fcc.us/1qACHZl). “The FCC should focus on changing their rules and closing loopholes and then we'll do the criminal enforcement part,” said Hunt. DOJ has called his office expressing concerns about the establishment of the Strike Force, Hunt said. DOJ has asked “who’s in charge here?” he said. Hunt said the Strike Force members were hired in a matter of months while it takes him “six months to a year” to make a hire.

Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said that based on Hunt’s testimony, it appears the FCC “has two teams doing substantially similar work."

"USF reform has created additional need for enhanced enforcement activities,” an FCC official said responding to the criticism. “FCC is coordinating with the OIG to ensure proper distribution of agency resources and to avoid any duplicative efforts. The Enforcement Bureau already agreed with OIG recently to share whistle-blower case referrals.” OIG generally has the lead on criminal matters, the Enforcement Bureau on egregious rule violations, the official said. “It’s not an either or question. The Strike Force supports the agency’s responsibility to ensure enforcement on these critical programs.”

'Like a Broken Record’

Panel ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said Hunt was “like a broken record” in his comments on his need to hire armed investigators. “We have huge agencies that do criminal investigations,” she said. “The DOJ is very well funded. The FBI is well funded.” Eshoo asked why the IG’s office can’t partner with them. “I don’t know if this is a well-sought avenue for you,” she said.

Getting other agencies to work with the FCC is “very rare,” Hunt responded. “We have much more fraud and waste that we can tackle.” Often, the FCC can’t get help from the FBI on USF fraud investigations because it doesn’t have enough agents in the field available to help, he said. DOJ and the FBI “won’t touch” cases aimed at fraud of less than $1 million, he said.

Eshoo said IT problems at the FCC appear to be a bigger issue than whether the IG can hire armed investigators. “I mean, for a whole system to crash, an IT system at an agency that is in charge of communications?” she said.

"We're trying to get as much help as we possibly can,” Hunt replied. Sometimes, the OIG has to rely on local enforcement for help as it does field investigations, he said. “There’s $20 billion involved here and we don’t have a single criminal investigator.”

FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins was the hearing’s only other witness. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked him why the agency needs a USF Strike Force when it has OIG. “We don’t view the Strike Force as an either/or with the IG,” Wilkins replied. There has always been “an overlapping mission” between OIG and the Enforcement Bureau, he said. Wheeler wants the bureau “to do more,” he said. He said the Strike Force has only three employees.

Blackburn asked Wilkins whether in a time of tight budgets, the Strike Force should be eliminated. “Does Chairman Wheeler have a lack of confidence in the IG’s Office?” she asked. “To the contrary,” Wilkins replied, saying there’s plenty of work for both. “Universal Service is going through so many changes, we think the challenges are going to grow.”

Walden opened the hearing by commenting on the ECFS crash. “According to the FCC’s responses to our data requests, it has spent more than $352 million in the last five years on IT,” he said. “How much of that was wasted on the FCC’s disastrous revamp of its website?” Walden asked how much was spent “to consolidate aging licensing systems, only to have the project simply disappear, years of work apparently abandoned?”

Wilkins said all filers who wanted to so were able to file comments in the net neutrality docket. Replies were due Monday. (See separate report below in this issue.) Wilkins said the number of comments now is 3.7 million. ECFS is “an 18-year-old system,” Wilkins said. “The technologies that underlie it are sort of long gone from the commercial world.” Updating EFCS is a “key focus” of an FCC IT modernization proposal, he said. (hbuskirk@warren-news.com)