The FCC should make public draft texts of proposals to be taken up at commission meetings at the same time they're circulated to commissioners, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Friday. O’Rielly called for the change in August (see 1408080031). He said now he understands the texts of items aren’t posted in advance of meetings because “it could be harder to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act,” and that “it could be more difficult to withhold documents under the Freedom of Information Act,” the post said. Neither argument is “persuasive or insurmountable,” O’Rielly wrote. His spokeswoman declined to detail who at the agency made those arguments. The agency didn't comment on O’Rielly’s blog. The concern about the APA, O’Rielly wrote, is that it requires the commission to review all comments and ex partes in a proceeding and respond to any substantive issues. “The concern is that, if we provide a copy of the draft item, we will get more specific comments and ex partes that staff will have to address when finalizing the item," said O'Rielly. "That is, we might actually get constructive feedback based on facts about what is in a draft that require us to roll up our sleeves and explain why we’ve made certain decisions and discarded alternatives.” Calling it a “logistical issue” and not a legal one, O’Rielly said the commission’s “capable and hardworking staff and managers” would be “up to the task” of dealing with it. O’Rielly also disputed a concern that releasing a draft of an agenda item “would make it harder to justify withholding other drafts or even internal emails about various drafts. … I am confident that our talented lawyers at the agency can handle it.” O’Rielly also said he has a sense that there are “some unspoken objections to the proposal” -- that “parties could be in a better position to figure out which edits have been requested by which offices.” He’s not troubled by that prospect, O’Rielly said. “Having worked on the Hill where members put their names on amendments, I am comfortable being associated with my requested edits,” the post said. The current process, O’Rielly said, can lead parties to have “limited or even incorrect knowledge of what is in a draft item, and therefore raise arguments that may be, through no fault of their own, untimely, unnecessary, or misdirected. That, in turn, requires staff to spend time sifting through red herrings rather than considering focused input that could strengthen the reasoning and ultimately the legal sufficiency of the item.”

Comments on how the proposals in the incentive auction comment public notice could affect the FCC’s Regulatory Flexibility Act analyses of the auction’s effects on small business are due Feb. 13, the same day as other comments on the PN, the Wireless Bureau said in a notice Thursday. Replies, like replies on the auction PN, are due March 13. Paperwork Reduction Act comments on the information collection procedures connected with the auction will be due 60 days after Thursday’s notice is published in the Federal Register, the bureau said.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) said it supports the goals of the White House’s plans to increase access to affordable high-speed broadband (see 1501140048), but said the plan doesn’t adequately address “the much larger challenge of broadband adoption that continues to promulgate second class digital citizenship among more vulnerable populations that include people of color, seniors, people with disabilities, and the poor.” The White House’s plan also doesn’t address how to end digital redlining, the practice of refusing to deploy broadband in low-income communities on par with service to wealthier communities, MMTC said in a statement. Industry groups continued to react Wednesday and Thursday to the White House’s plan, with Comptel CEO Chip Pickering saying in a statement that the “renewed focus on removing regulatory barriers and improving investment incentives are more steps in the right direction to ensure that American consumers can enjoy faster broadband services and lower costs.” The plan means Obama has joined with “Americans who are standing up for the right of local communities to bring high-speed broadband to their residents, no matter how small their community is,” Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Affairs Chris Lewis said in a statement.

The FCC needs to step up its shift toward electronic communications, Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said in a blog post Wednesday. Pointing to recommendations in a February report on FCC process reform that all bureaus with licensing responsibility move to electronic means of communication, O'Rielly put the onus on the Office of the Managing Director to implement the shift: “What is the hold-up on completing this very reasonable review of our licensing and notification processes, and why haven’t other actions been taken to move towards electronic recordkeeping and communications?” O'Rielly praised the shifts to paperless licensing that already have happened, as in the Wireless Bureau seeking input on the Universal Licensing System and the Antenna Structure Registration System having a paperless option. “Considering that the Commission issues almost half a million wireless licenses and authorizations per year at a cost of over $300,000, this could result in substantial savings,” O'Rielly said. He pointed to recent enforcement actions related to conventional mail -- such as an applicant not receiving notices of delinquency sent to the wrong address -- as evidence of the advantage of electronic communications. “Chairman Wheeler set the Commission on the right path on this particular item, but now we need to follow through at a much swifter pace," O'Rielly said. "The process reform initiative and the Chief Information Officer completely agree this is a priority area, and are working hard on it," said an FCC spokesman in an email.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's visit last week to CES led her to conclude that diversity in the tech world is improving, but more needs to be done, she said Tuesday in a blog post. “As I tried to cover the more than 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space, I could not help but notice that there seemed to be more people of color on the floor and presenting at the exhibits than in prior years,” she said. “While notable, there is clearly more that can and should be done.” Clyburn cited reports that African-American women in the tech industry receive less than 1 percent of venture capital funds available each year. The wireless everywhere world in display at CES also points to the need for the FCC to restructure its voice-only Lifeline adoption program to also support broadband, she said. “News flash: The technology to enable the ‘Internet of Everything’ is not two or three years away,” Clyburn wrote. “It is here today, but as regulators, we must never forget that all consumers must have access to broadband in order for that [sic] virtuous reality exists when everyone benefits.”

President Barack Obama will declare his support Wednesday for FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband and will file a letter with the agency in support of pre-emption, said National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients on a call Tuesday with reporters. The commission is currently considering whether to pre-empt laws in North Carolina and Tennessee in response to petitions filed by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina. Obama is expected to announce his support for FCC pre-emption during a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as part of a proposal to increase access to affordable high-speed broadband, Zients said. The administration “is making its view clear,” as it did when Obama announced his support for Communications Act Title II reclassification in November (see 1411100035), Zients said.

The FTC is requesting public comment on a proposal to study the agency’s effectiveness when it ordered a divestiture or other remedies in merger cases from 2006 to 2012, an agency news release said Friday. “Successful divestitures and other forms of relief are central to the Commission’s merger enforcement efforts,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in the release. “Building on prior Commission efforts, the proposed study seeks to provide valuable information to ensure that our remedies continue achieving their primary goal -- maintaining competition in the affected markets,” she said. The proposed study would expand on a similar report by the agency from 1999, the release said. The FTC would review 92 related orders. (See the notice for public comment here.)

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has no intention of leaving the commission, her soon-to-be-ex-Legal Adviser David Goldman told us Tuesday. Rumors were swirling at CES, especially after it was announced that Goldman was going to the Hill to work for Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., next ranking member of the House Commerce Committee. Also, the White House failed to send Rosenworcel’s name to the Senate for reconfirmation, while renominating Republican Mike O’Rielly. One carrier lobbyist said that development was “baffling” and took away some of Rosenworcel’s leverage. Rosenworcel has been on the FCC since May 2012 and her term expires in June, though she can stay on until the 2016 session of Congress adjourns. O’Rielly was confirmed to a new five-year term on the FCC in December (see 1412170031).

A new FCC Consumer Help Center announced by the agency Monday will make several changes to the previous online complaint system, including giving consumers the ability to track the status of their complaints, an agency official told us. The site operates on its own cloud-based platform instead of on the agency’s server, the official said. As before, the complaint system is separate from the Electronic Comment Filing System, though both appear on the agency's homepage. In addition to new functions, the official said, the $1.1 million cost of launching and then maintaining the new system over the next five years will be less than the estimated $2.3 million cost of maintaining the aging old system. Among the changes, online complaints will be forwarded to carriers daily instead of weekly, and cumulative tallies of complaints by type and state will be available on the site, the official said. The system guides consumers through filling out complaints, and provides information on common issues about service, and the commission’s jurisdiction over them, the official said. The system was praised by the Consumers Union, in a release. “This site will make it easier for people to file and track complaints about problems like annoying robocalls and fraudulent charges, and it will help the FCC spot emerging trends in the marketplace,” said Delara Derakhshani, the organization’s policy counsel. “This is a one-stop shop for consumers, and it’s a real improvement over the old system, where forms and information were spread out and hard to find.” The site was also praised by Danielle Kehl, a policy analyst at New America’s Open Technology Institute, in a release. “The new system will enable greater transparency about the type and volume of these complaints, and the system is a critical component of two broader goals: modernizing the FCC’s infrastructure and improving data collection practices,” Kehl said. "This is something that should help consumers better hold companies accountable," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a statement.

The 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015 is an opportunity to examine how “the FCC, and communications law and policy … should be reformed in ways that are consistent with rule of law norms [laid out in that historic document],” Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote in a blog post Friday. “And there will be plenty of such reform and rule of law-oriented work on which to focus,” he wrote. May said Chairman Tom Wheeler “appears intent, especially after President [Barack] Obama’s intervention, on forcing adoption of new public utility-like net neutrality mandates applicable to Internet service providers -- once again relying on questionable legal authority.” It’s “likely,” May wrote, “the agency will abuse its merger review authority by imposing, or inducing merger applicants to ‘volunteer,’ conditions unrelated to any competitive concerns directly raised by the proposed transactions.” It’s also “likely the FCC will continue to try to micromanage competition in ways that favor certain parties over others without sufficient regard to reliance or proprietary interests or due process concerns,” May wrote. Wheeler also “increasingly has evidenced a tendency to diminish his colleagues’ ability to participate in FCC decision-making processes, for example, by directing the agency staff to act on ‘delegated authority’ on significant matters or acting alone,” May wrote. The agency didn't respond. May also cited a recently published book by Columbia University Law professor Philip Hamburger, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?. May said he doesn't go as far as Hamburger’s conclusion “that most, if not all, of the actions of our administrative agencies are unlawful,” but Hamburger’s arguments should “impact the way we think about the lawfulness of various FCC actions and the way the courts consider these actions on review.”