Enforcement Bureau Changes Outgrowth of Reform, LeBlanc Says at NAB Show
LAS VEGAS -- Industry perception that the FCC Enforcement Bureau has become more active and more willing to slap offenders with heavy fines is an outgrowth of process reforms within the bureau, Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said during an NAB Show Q&A session Tuesday hosted by former Enforcement Bureau Chief David Solomon. The bureau no longer treats every complaint as a potential case, but focuses on larger matters where it can make the most impact and act quickly, LeBlanc said. “We are thinking beyond just ‘is this a rule violation?’” The bureau’s older methods led to backlog and inaction, he said.
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By treating every violation as a case, the Enforcement Bureau was unable to act quickly, causing it to frequently bump up against the one-year statute of limitations, LeBlanc said. That in turn led to the bureau's frequently negotiating tolling agreements to extend its cases, leading to more backlog. The bureau was spending “400 person hours” every month negotiating tolling agreements and escrow arrangements, LeBlanc said. The bureau’s backlog of cases included many where there was no legal basis for enforcement, he said.
The reformed bureau focuses on large cases and quick action, avoiding the necessity for tolling agreements, he said. That’s good for the industries he polices, because there’s more certainty about when an enforcement action can come, LeBlanc said. Large enforcement actions on cramming, indecency and Wi-Fi blocking are all an outgrowth of the reforms, LeBlanc said.
Before issuing a $325,000 notice of apparent liability (NAL) against WDBJ Roanoke for broadcasting explicit video from an adult film website on a news broadcast, the bureau had been seeking a clear, egregious indecency case, LeBlanc said.“We wanted to make sure there was a clear violation," he said. Though WDBJ argued that the broadcast was inadvertent and the result of an editing mistake, LeBlanc told Communications Daily that by showing a screen shot of a porn site, the station was “playing with fire.” Though he conceded that the intent may not have been “nefarious,” he disputed that it constituted an inadvertent violation. “Indecency is alive,” LeBlanc said. “The egregious standard hasn’t changed,” he said. The commission vote to issue the NAL was unanimous, as have been nearly all of the votes on Enforcement Bureau items since he took the job, LeBlanc said.
A proposal to reduce the number of Enforcement Bureau Field Offices as a cost-cutting measure is also an outgrowth of the bureau’s reforms. Morale in the field is low, LeBlanc said, and 50 percent of FCC field agents are eligible for retirement right now, he said. Policy changes such as online public files have lessened the need for field offices, he said. Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys at the session expressed concern about the eliminated field offices and the effect on pirate radio enforcement. “Those field offices are the FCC, to us,” one Iowa broadcaster told LeBlanc. Though LeBlanc said in Tuesday’s Q&A that the bureau is searching for a preventive solution to the problem of pirate radio stations, a broadcast attorney who represents radio licensees told us afterward that there is an industry perception that pirate radio is not a high priority for the bureau chief.