FCC Remake Reportedly in New Administration’s Plans

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Big changes in how the FCC does its job could be on the horizon. The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly okayed a proposal by the agency’s transition team to restructure the Commission’s bureaus, reports Broadcasting and Cable.

The changes would relax the “silos” that currently separate telephony, broadcasting, satellite and other industries and parcel out to other agencies duties that are duplicative, according to the account. The proposal is related to comments made by two transition team members — Jeffrey Eisenach and Roslyn Layton — in 2014, in their role as scholars of the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, according to the account. They have both said that a “more coherent and streamlined” FCC would better serve the goals of consumers, competitors and Congress.

The changes reportedly came out of a meeting last Friday between representatives of Trump and the FCC transition team. Members of Congress have long said it’s beyond time to eliminate the separate bureaus at the FCC that are divided by industry, but they differ on what would replace them.

Randolph May, president of the consumer group Free State Foundation, said it’s “encouraging” that the Trump transition team and the President-elect’s representatives want to do more than “tinker around the edges” concerning FCC reform. “There is an opportunity now, not to be wasted, to make some fundamental changes in the FCC’s structure and the way it operates,” he tells Broadcasting and Cable.

(“FCC Auction May End Abruptly Setting Off Mergers” see article below)

January 17, 2017

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