Genachowski to Outline Retrospective Regulatory Review Plan

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will outline some highlights from the commissioner's plan for the retrospective regulatory review it has promised the White House.

That is according to a release from the Georgetown's McDonough School of Business school, which says that the chairman "will announce a new plan toward retrospective review of regulatory practices in response to an Obama Administration executive order for independent regulatory agencies," in a speech there Nov. 7.

An FCC spokesperson says it will be more like highlights from the plan, which is completed but has not yet been published.

The President issued two executive orders, the first saying government agencies needed to submit regulatory review plans to the White House, a second to clarify that although independent agencies like the FCC and FTC were not subject to that order, they were encouraged, "to the extent permitted by law," to comply with the first order, at last to the extent of publishing a plan of action for reviewing their regs according to a qualitative and quantitative cost-benefit analysis of their impact on jobs and the economy.

The FCC promised in July to release the plan for what the chairman emphasized was a continuing retrospective reg-reform effort already in progress.

In response to FCC regulatory reform bills proposed this week in the House and Senate, the FCC spokesman earlier this week outlined to B&C/Multi what those efforts have been to date.

"Since day one, Chairman Genachowski has directed the agency to improve performance and processes to support innovation, economic growth and America's global competitiveness," said an FCC spokesman in response to the bill and defense of the FCC's regulatory reform efforts. "We've made impressive strides, such as reducing Commission backlogs, including an 89% reduction in satellite licensing applications and a 30% reduction in broadcast licensing applications, closing 999 dormant proceedings and increasing the number of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs) that contained the text of proposed rules from 38% before the Chairman's appointment to 85%. We've also significantly reduced the time between the vote on a Commission decision and its release, from an average release time of 14 calendar days before the Chairman's appointment to just three calendar days, with a majority released within one day."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.