House Republican leaders want to know how cooperative the FCC has been with the Obama administration's executive order on reviewing regulations for their impact on the jobs and economy.
The FCC, as an independent agency, is not bound by the order, but FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said the agency is honoring the spirit of the order in online reg reviews.
In a letter to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget, who is overseeing compliance with the order, Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairs of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, respectively, asked Sunstein what efforts it had made to inform independent agencies of the goals and principles of the order and whether any other independent agencies were submitting official regulatory review plans. An FCC source has said the commission, as an independent agency, is not submitting a review plan.
They also want to know what contact it has had with the FCC about its regulatory review, how it will ensure that it is consistent with the executive order, and how it will conduct its own review of that effort with FCC and other independent agencies.
The letter was dated June 22, the same day Upton and Walden presided over an FCC reform hearing.
Sunstein, in testimony at a June 3 hearing of Stearns' Oversight subcommittee, said he encouraged the FCC and other indies to submit a regulatory review plan.
