Free Press encouraged the FCC to beef up its ex...

a wide range of agency proceedings and has filed hundreds of notices of ex parte communication. Based on our experience, the burden of filing ex parte notices is minimal, and the value to the public of transparent processes -- particularly when ex parte presentations contain original arguments or material -- greatly outweighs the burden.” Fines by themselves are not enough to discourage wrongdoing by large, deep-pocket companies, Free Press warned. “To promote a level playing field for advocates, the Commission should favor disqualification, other equitable remedies, or variable fines tailored to organizational size,” the group said. “There is no fixed amount of monetary forfeiture that will be simultaneously large enough to be a meaningful deterrent for corporations with multibillion-dollar revenues and yet small enough not to cripple a non-profit organization.” The “draconian” suggestions of doing away entirely with oral ex parte lobbying made by the Consumer Federation of America and Public Knowledge ought to be rejected by the FCC, the NAB said. That “would deprive policymakers of the benefits of the ex parte process,” it said. None of the eight panelists at an FCC workshop on ex parte filing reform, which included a Public Knowledge representative, wanted the agency to discourage meetings in favor of positions only made in filings (CD Oct 29 p6). An alternative suggestion from the two public interest groups that ex parte presentations be recorded on video or fully transcribed is “simply overkill and unnecessary,” the NAB said. “PK/CFA in fact acknowledges that full audio and video recordings of every oral ex parte presentation could become unwieldy. NAB suggests that they also are impractical, unduly burdensome, and would inhibit free-flowing, useful discussions.”