FCC Meetings Running Longer Than Under Previous Chairmen
Monthly FCC meetings are running longer, partially due to the intricacies of the National Broadband Plan, but also because of additional time spent on Haitian earthquake relief efforts earlier this year and bureau chiefs going over items also discussed in staffers’ presentations. The 10 meetings under Chairman Julius Genachowski lasted an average of 2 hours 13 minutes, our research found. That’s 33 percent longer than the last 10 meetings under Kevin Martin, though meetings now start on time. It’s also longer than the last five meetings whose video we could access under two previous chairmen. Before items were approved on circulation, meetings sometimes would last all day.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Longer meetings have drawn the attention of agency staffers, some of whom have privately complained. The longest meeting under Genachowski was 4 hours and 35 minutes. Under Michael Copps’ interim chairmanship, meetings were on average 20 minutes longer than under Genachowski, up 15 percent, because industry and other officials involved in the DTV transition testified at length. Under Martin, staffers presenting items usually were limited to reading aloud no more than five pages of text, double spaced, said a current official. It had been rare for chiefs to discuss the substance of items when staff also go over them in detail, agency officials said.
Meetings under Michael Powell lasted an average of 110 minutes, 17 percent shorter than meetings presided over by Genachowski. Under Bill Kennard, gatherings ran an average of 79 minutes, 41 percent shorter than during the tenure of the current chairman. The longer length of recent meetings doesn’t correspond with votes on more items: The average is 1.8 items per meeting under Genachowski compared with 2.25 during the last 10 Martin FCC meetings we could access, 4.8 under Powell and 3 under Kennard. Commission spokespeople didn’t reply to messages seeking comment.
Between 1997 and 2001, meetings usually ran a few hours and probably never over four hours, said Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican FCC member then. Four-plus hours seems “unnecessarily long,” he said. “I guess when it starts going beyond 3 [hours], that’s a long time.” The statements commissioners read at March 16’s meeting where the broadband plan was unveiled were lengthy and not “ready for prime time,” said Nicholas Johnson, a Democratic commissioner in the ‘60s and ‘70s. His counsel: “Give some thought to keeping it punchy, keeping it interesting. … You've got to put time limits on people, otherwise you're never going to be able to get out of the meeting.”
Some former commissioners and industry lawyers said they haven’t taken note of the lengthier meetings. For Henry Rivera, an ex-Democratic commissioner in the ‘80s, “while some may find reasons to criticize the chairman’s administration of the agency, it would seem to me that the length of his meetings would be far down the list.” He thinks Genachowski “would welcome constructive criticism that would make the meetings a more efficient use of time. Who could argue against that? It’s like motherhood and apple pie.” Longer meetings don’t likely significantly cut productivity among FCC members and aides, said Glen Robinson, a Democratic commissioner in the ‘70s. “The actual meeting time to discuss such matters is trivial compared to the staff time and resources consumed in preparing the docket for the meeting.”