FCC Clarifies in Response to MMTC Letter on Wheeler Testimony
The FCC issued a “clarification” Wednesday in response to a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council letter challenging a statement by agency Chairman Tom Wheeler before the House Communications Subcommittee Tuesday. MMTC Senior Adviser David Honig said an MMTC proposal…
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for further reaching minority procurement policies wasn’t vulnerable to constitutional challenges, responding to a statement from Wheeler that such a rule change could invoke questions of strict scrutiny (see 1607120083). “At the hearing, Chairman Wheeler noted that in considering any action taken that might be subject to the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision, the Commission must be careful in determining whether that action would be reviewed under the strict-scrutiny standard, and if so whether it could satisfy that standard,” the clarification said. “The Chairman did not intend, by stating current law, to suggest that the MMTC procurement proposal would be subject to the strict-scrutiny standard.” Wheeler should “affirm that the broad outreach of the MVPD Procurement Rule is not subject to ‘strict scrutiny,’” MMTC President Kim Keenan said in a statement after the FCC clarification. “We stand in support of the July 12, 2016, letter from Congresswoman [Yvette] Clarke [D-N.Y.] and Congressmen [Bobby] Rush [D-Ill.] and [G.K.] Butterfield [D-N.C.] requesting that the a MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] Procurement Rule, adopted and implemented under the 1992 Cable Act, be extended to all communications industries, with a referral to GAO for Title I information services.”