House Communications Subcommittee Vetting New FCC Reform Bills

The House Communications Subcommittee has scheduled an FCC
reform hearing for July 11.

According to the committee, the hearing will be a chance to
review discussion drafts of legislation similar to bills approved by the
Republican-controlled House last session -- they went nowhere in the
Democratic-controlled Senate.

The goal, according to the committee's Republican
leadership, is to "streamline obligations of the FCC and improve
decision-making while reducing regulatory burdens facing job creators."

In the last Congress, thattranslated into legislation that passed out of the committee that put shot
clocks on FCC decisions, requires disclosure of items before votes, and limits
on merger conditions.

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.