02/02/2017

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced a pilot program the Commission says is designed to dramatically increase the transparency of its rulemakings.

"For the first time, the Chairman is releasing to the public the full text of documents he circulated to his fellow Commissioners for a vote at the FCC's next Open Meeting on February 23," an FCC news release said. Under prior practice, such documents and any draft proposals they contain would circulate internally 3 weeks before an open Commission meeting, but were not made public until after the final vote. At the same time, the Commission would announce its tentative agenda for the next meeting, followed by a formal agenda 1 week prior.

"We believe that releasing these documents - rather than keeping them behind closed doors until after our vote - will increase the public's understanding of our decision-making process, and result in final rules that better serve the public interest," Pai said in announcing the change. If successful, Chairman Pai's pilot project will become a new part of this process going forward.

In the pilot, Pai is releasing the full text of two documents that will be listed on the tentative agenda for the February Open Meeting. The first is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) soliciting public input on allowing television stations to use ATSC 3.0, the next-generation broadcast standard. The second is a Report and Order (R&O) that gives AM radio broadcasters more flexibility in siting their FM translators.

The release of both an NPRM and an R&O will serve as test cases. "Between now and our monthly meeting on February 23, we will closely assess how the process plays out with respect to these items," Pai said. "Should things go well, my hope is to make it the norm to publicly release, well in advance, the text of all agenda items for monthly Commission meetings."

In announcing the change, Pai thanked House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR); Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) - the original sponsors of the FCC Process Reform Act, the legislation including this change, which passed the House last week. Kinzinger is the sponsor of the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2017 (H.R. 555).

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