Does the Federal Communications Commission need a replacement?

[Gregg Lengling]

FCC decision-making and the process that goes into regulating communications may need an overhaul, says Progress and Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies Randolph May. He and the organization says it won't be enough for Congress to simply re-write communications laws since the institution that oversees those laws needs to be changed, slimmed down, and its decision-making authority consolidated and made politically accountable.

"In addition to providing more specific deregulatory direction in tune with today's competitive marketplace realities, Congress should radically reform the institution that implements the law," May says. "It is time for Congress to reinvent the FCC."

May also argues that the agency "regularly issues muddled, fractious decisions that take many months, or years, to produce and they are frequently overturned in court." In addition, major proceedings that impact economic growth "drag on interminably" and are "in a constant state of flux." Rather than "fostering investment and innovation, FCC actions have done just the opposite," he says.

Since 1999, the FCC's budget has grown by more than half and it has more employees, May says.

The Progress and Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy.