Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) says she will support passage Monday of the FCC Process Reform Act of 2015 (H.R. 2583), which is being brought up on the House floor under fast-track rules that limit debate and prevent amendments.
It is expected to pass.
Eshoo said that even though the bill continues to make her provision allowing more than two FCC commissioners to meet outside of public meetings contingent on completing other reforms, she said in a statement Monday that "any further delay in implementation [of the Act] is the unnecessary delay of a much needed reform."
The baseline bill, which passed the House with bipartisan support in the last Congress, gives the FCC a year to set minimum comment periods, establishes procedures for putting specific language of a proposed rule in notices of proposed rulemaking, and comes up with performance measures for evaluating the effectiveness of rules.
The bill passed out of a divided E&C in June (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/divided-house-ec-approv...).
The bill includes three Democratic amendments that 1) "require a report on actions the Commission can take to improve the participation of small businesses in FCC proceedings, publication on the FCC’s website of the status of a quarterly progress report, and publication of any internal policies established or changed by the Chairman."
Eshoo said, collectively, those would "modernize and enhance transparency at the FCC without jeopardizing regulatory certainty or opening the Commission to legal challenges on every agency action."
