Most Meetings With FCC Staff Remain Virtual and That's Unlikely to Change

In-person meetings at the FCC are increasing, but the majority are virtual, as they have been since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly four years ago. The number of in-person ex parte meetings appear roughly the same as a year ago, based on a review of filings and industry interviews. Beginning last March, more staff began working in the office on more days of the week (see 2303030047). One tendency, industry officials say, is that more meetings with commissioner advisers are now at FCC headquarters. But meetings with the offices and bureaus are mostly virtual because staffers have differing in-office schedules. Virtual meetings seem the best way of ensuring everyone who needs to attend a meeting can.

Federal Advisory Committee Act groups have resumed in-person meetings, exemplified by last week's sessions of the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee (see 2401300051) and the Precision Agriculture Task Force (see 2401310010).

What’s happening at the FCC reflects the private sector, where the trend is increased virtual meetings, said Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's senior counselor. “There are pluses and minuses, but the trend is surely in favor of more virtual meetings than in the past.”

Something influencing the rise in virtual sessions is that it's more difficult to schedule in-person meetings, Schwartzman said. Many FCC and private sector staff, even those based in Washington, D.C., frequently work from home, “so getting everyone in a room is getting harder to do,” he said: “It doesn't help that the FCC's new location is not especially convenient, or that the aggressive building security makes entry much more difficult.” Schwartzman noted that under current rules, an FCC employee must accompany a visitor at all times.

When attorneys schedule ex parte meetings with the FCC, both sides generally assume that the session will be virtual, said Wiley broadcast attorney Eve Klindera Reed. Moreover, virtual meetings afford entities without D.C. offices more opportunities, NAB Chief Legal Officer Rick Kaplan said. “If you’re a small broadcaster in Utah, you can still get a meeting with staff,” he said. "FCC staff is generally available for in-person meetings upon request," said an FCC spokesperson in response to questions about the frequency of virtual meetings.

When public interest groups have meetings at the FCC, some participants are often located in other places and unable to make the trip here, said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. “In the old days, we would have met in person with a phone bridge for participants out of town,” he said: “These days, we just do virtual for everyone.”

Industry lawyers said some subtleties in communication are inevitably lost when few meetings are in-person.

“More information can be conveyed during in-person ex parte meetings, but most FCC meetings still seem to be virtual, and that’s likely to be the shape of the future,” emailed Cooley’s Robert McDowell. Virtual meetings "don’t build relationships and trust as well as in-person contact,” he said. Unless the federal government returns to an in-the-office schedule of five days a week, “virtual meetings are here to stay.”

On the other hand, Fletcher Heald’s Francisco Montero has seen “a small uptick” in in-person meetings since the summer. Several are expected involving state broadcast associations during the upcoming State Leadership Conference, he said: “Otherwise, I have not seen a big bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.”

Brooks Pierce's Tim Nelson, a broadcast attorney based in North Carolina, agreed that the prevalence of virtual meetings makes scheduling them easier, but he still values in-person contact more. Telecommunications Law Professionals broadcast attorney Gregg Skall said, “You can still get [in-person meetings with the FCC] if you want them.” An in-person meeting can “make your issues and your situation more relatable,” Skall said. Some meetings on technical or straightforward issues are fine to do remotely, but more-complicated matters are better hashed out in person, he said.

I Street Advocates attorney David Goodfriend told us that he almost exclusively opts for in-person meetings. A videoconference can't replicate personal contact and the incidental aspects of being at the FCC, such as side conversations with staff, he said. Attorneys representing clients before the agency have a duty to pursue in-person meetings, Goodfriend added.

All the attorneys we spoke with for this article said they felt the trend toward virtual meetings at the FCC is unlikely to change soon. Skall said he's concerned that younger attorneys won't experience the benefits of in-person interactions with FCC staffers. However, Skall and Reed also acknowledged this isn’t the first time the agency has shifted this way: Before increased security imposed after the 9/11 attacks, attorneys “could just hang out” at the FCC, Reed said. Added Skall, “If I had a question, I would just walk into Roy Stewart’s office and ask,” referring to the late, longtime chief of the then-Mass Media Bureau.