FCC on verge of a 'breakdown'

December 04, 2007 In a letter dated Monday12/3, Dingell told Martin that the Commerce Committee's investigative panel, which Dingell chairs, was launching an investigation into the FCC's practices. Wrote Dingell: "For instance, the commission does not put the text of proposed rules out for notice and comment; there is little public notice of certain proposed commission actions; and commissioners are often not informed of the details of draft items until it is too late to provide the necessary scrutiny and analysis that is so important to reasoned decision-making." Recently, commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, and Robert McDowell, a Republican, accused Martin of withholding information in the commission's recent decision on whether the cable industry had reached a critical subscriber threshold that would allow the commission to regulate the industry.

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