House approves FCC reform bill

The House on Monday approved a bill to require the Federal Communications Commission to take another look at its rule-making procedures. 

The legislation, approved by voice vote, is similar to a reform bill passed by the House last Congress that never made its way through the upper chamber.

{mosads}“While there is still much work to be done on reforming the procedures at this sometimes broken agency, this bill represents a vital first step in the process,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said.

The Senate version has not moved in committee this year. Walden said “hopefully this year they will take it up.”  

The legislation calls for the commission to write rules within a year to establish clear timelines when writing rules and to make it easier for the public to know what is before the commission. The bill would make it easier for commissioners to hold nonpublic meetings and make more information available on the FCC website, including a consumer complaint database.

The bill would also force the commission to explore whether it would be possible to publish the text of regulations before they are approved — but no mandate would be set.   

The initial legislation that passed out of committee in June included stronger language, requiring the FCC to publish the actual text of rules three weeks before a vote. It would also have required the commission to quickly publish the final text of the rules after a vote. 

Those provisions gained steam this year with Republicans, who rallied against the FCC’s vote on net neutrality regulations over the Internet. 

They unsuccessfully pressed the commission to break precedent and release the actual text of the document ahead of a vote. They used the issue as a cudgel, arguing that the FCC was voting on a long and complex item of national importance that only a few had seen. 

That provision did not make it onto the floor Monday. It was removed in order to get Democratic support to get the bill through the House with a suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority of those voting. 

“We worked in a bipartisan manner to craft the language that we take up today,” said ranking Democrat of the Energy and Commerce Committee Frank Pallone (N.J.), noting that three Democratic amendments were added.