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Thomas Lenard of the Technology Policy Institute wrote an Op-Ed for The Wall Street Journal suggesting that it’s time to shut down the FCC. The Technology Policy Institute is a well-regarded think tank that concentrates on advancing knowledge to inform policymakers. The FCC recently initiated the “Delete, Delete, Delete” effort that asked the industry and the public if there are unneeded FCC regulations that should be taken off the books. The response was so overwhelming that if every suggestion was implemented there would be little left of the agency.
Mr. Lenard thinks shutting the FCC is in keeping with the Administration’s effort to streamline government by shutting down unneeded agencies. He suggests that the agency has met its original role, which was to regulate monopoly telecommunications services and to promote telecom competition.
He has a good point. The FCC was created by the 1934 Telecommunications Act specifically to oversee the Bell System monopoly along with radio and telegraph service. The agency watched the sunset of telegraph service and the diminishment of radio. It expanded its reach to regulate cable TV and cellular service. All of the industries overseen by the FCC are now highly competitive. Traditional cable TV is seemingly headed on the same death spiral as telegraph service and paging. At least in cities and suburbs, people have a wide array of competitive choices for telecom services. Satellite communications is rapidly growing to fill in the gaps in rural broadband, texting, and mobile voice. The FCC hasn’t overseen any major new policy since implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
There are precedents of federal agencies that put themselves out of business. The Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce Commission were closed when their original regulatory mission was no longer needed, with any remaining functions moved to the Department of Transportation. The push towards government efficiency probably means a lot more agencies will disappear.
If the FCC disappeared tomorrow, it would create a void in a few areas. Mr. Leonard suggests the useful functions could be moved to other agencies. It would make sense to move spectrum management and the Universal Service Fund to the Commerce Department under the NTIA. The other big useful push from the FCC in recent years is the attempt to clamp down on robocalls and spam, and that function could be moved to the FTC.
Mr. Leonard argues that, for the most part, the FCC is now an agency looking for a reason to exist. The agency is suddenly concentrating its effort on asserting authority over content on the public airways, something that is far removed from the agency’s stated purpose. Commissioner Nathan Simington recently suggested the FCC should regulate streaming video. When a regulatory agency begins looking for new things to regulate, it’s probably at the end of its original mission.
There are those, including me, who think the remaining FCC’s mission is to protect the public from telecom monopolies. But in all honesty, the agency hasn’t made much effort to help the public in decades, other than perhaps with robocalling. The FCC has been a textbook example of regulatory capture where the industries being regulated have all of the sway and influence.
The Administration proposes to shut a long list of agencies, including the Department of Education, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Isn’t it time to add the FCC to that list?
By Doug Dawson, President, CCG Consulting
Doug Dawson is president, CCG Consulting. This Op Ed was originally posted to his Pots and Pans Broadband for All blog.
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