Slew of Friday FCC Actions Seen as Likely Desk Clearing, Though Some Question It

Friday heading into the three-day Labor Day weekend saw the FCC issue a slew of announcements, including one after business hours. Similar moves in the past drew fire as seemingly aimed at avoiding attention. Now, the actions raised the eyebrows of one open governance expert. Others defended the agency.

"This is still a new administration, so let's give the Chairman the benefit of the doubt," emailed Adonis Hoffman, a former aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn who now consults for companies. "If a pattern develops, then we can be among the first to throw stones."

The actions included a change in the next commissioners' meeting from Sept. 28 to Sept. 26 to accommodate a commissioner's schedule (see 1709010043); a public notice on six new Consumer Advisory Committee members (see 1709010061); a PN on working group members of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council and an Oct. 26 CSRIC meeting (see 1709010025); and a PN on a new chair of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee after the previous one left for personal reasons, and on a new local government member of the BDAC (see 1709010046) after localities and states sought greater representation (see 1706010054 and 1708210046). The Media Bureau also pushed back a deadline for broadcasters to file ownership reports.

The FCC said those were posted between 11:20 a.m. and 1:55 p.m.

Noncontroversial

The Friday items were "noncontroversial, fairly routine commission business," unlike the slew of items rescinded by bureaus in February that saw sharp criticism from Clyburn (see 1702160034), one eighth-floor official said. Announcing new committee members is "very different" from rescinding items, we were told. Clyburn's office didn't comment Tuesday.

“Despite the substantial resources devoted last week to responding to Harvey, the FCC was able to post all of these items but two to its web site by 1:45 pm on Friday," the agency said. It said the exceptions were the daily report on Harvey outages (see 1709050058), posted at 3:30 p.m., "and the response to a last-minute [CCA] petition." The agency said the Public Safety Bureau worked to respond Friday "to avoid consumer confusion that could have resulted had the Bureau not acted.”

Friday release before a holiday weekend "is a time-honored ... practice in Washington" that transcends political party, Sunlight Foundation Deputy Director Alex Howard said, tongue in cheek. He said best practices would dictate that information should be rolled out in way that avoids the appearance of secrecy, including a delay on the release until after the weekend. He also criticized FCC engagement with the public on issues like the net neutrality order, saying it could be employing steps like virtual town halls.

White Houses have tried to downplay issues by releasing them on Friday afternoons, but it hasn't been a common practice among federal agencies, said American University professor of practice in administrative law Jeffrey Lubbers said. He said unless there were items in the FCC Friday actions that seemed to be about avoiding publicity, the more likely cause was desk clearing before the holiday weekend. Our analysis last year found the FCC exceeds all but one other federal commission in after-hours document issuances (see 1608040026).

Broadcaster, Wireless Relief

Also Friday, the agency -- responding to a Thursday petition by the Competitive Carriers Association -- provided “temporary and conditional relief” for CCA, waiving a requirement that carriers decide by that day whether to elect to withdraw from the voluntary wireless emergency alert program. That was posted at 6:15 p.m.

CCA members last month asked the FCC to extend new requirements for WEAs for at least a year because of technical concerns (see 1708160063). The FCC approved revised rules and sought comment on future changes to WEAs a year ago (see 1609290060). That order increased the maximum length of WEA messages from 90 to 360 characters for 4G LTE and future networks and requires participating wireless providers to support inclusion of embedded phone numbers and URLs in all WEA alerts by Nov. 1. CCA questioned whether the deadline was achievable for many competitive carriers.

The Public Safety Bureau relented, at least temporarily, Friday. “Because CCA argues that, absent a waiver, some of its members would be required to notify customers today of their intent to withdraw their election to participate in the WEA system, and we find that the agency needs additional time to consider the merits of this waiver request, which was just filed yesterday, we grant CCA interim relief,” the bureau said. The waiver is in effect while the FCC addresses the petition. The bureau required CCA members that take part in the WEA program to continue to do so while the temporary waiver remains in effect. CCA reported in a Friday filing on a meeting with FCC staff. “CCA’s members do not wish to opt-out of the WEA program, and certainly do not want to do so on the brink of hurricane season,” said the filing in docket 15-91. CCA didn't comment Tuesday.

This will be the first year that commercial and noncommercial broadcasters all file Form 323 reports at the same time, and the Media Bureau pushed the deadline from Dec. 1 to March 2. Public interest groups consider the form important for demographic data gathering and many broadcasters see it as burdensome (see 1708070059).

NAB asked the FCC to delay the deadline indefinitely pending the resolution of the commission’s media deregulation proceeding, but in a footnote, the bureau said the delay is intended to satisfy another NAB request, that the FCC ensure that “the rollout of the revised forms in LMS [Licensing and Management System] goes smoothly and that broadcasters have sufficient time to familiarize themselves with and test the new forms.” The biennial ownership reports still will report on the ownership of each station as of Oct. 1, so station owners who sell between then and the new deadline will need to file their biennial reports even if they no longer own any stations, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. “At the least, the delay may give many filers reason to give thanks this Thanksgiving, as they now will not need to spend that holiday weekend preparing ownership reports,” blogged the Fletcher Heald law firm.