House committee investigation blames Martin for FCC’s ‘broken process’: Hearings proposed for June

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s troubles on Capitol Hill could be taking a turn for the worse.
House Commerce Committee investigators have recommended to Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) that hearings on FCC management practices be held in June, citing results to date from a probe of the issue that began late last year.
“We have conducted more than 30 interviews with current and former [FCC] employees as well as industry representatives and private citizens. The bottom line is that the [FCC] process appears broken and most of the blame appears to rest with Chairman Martin,” stated an April 28 staff memo to Dingell and oversight and investigations subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
The FCC was not the only the focus of six-page memo, which laid out a proposed schedule for upcoming hearings and provided status reports on investigations in various industry sectors under the full committee’s purview.
“We have no comment at this time,” said an FCC spokesman.
“No hearings have been scheduled,” said a committee spokesman.
In early December, Dingell wrote Martin to raise concerns over an apparent lack of transparency in the FCC regulatory processes. “Given several events and proceedings over the past year, I am rapidly losing confidence that the commission has been conducting its affairs in an appropriate manner,” stated Dingell at the time. “While this is certainly not true for every commission proceeding, a trend appears to be emerging of short-circuiting procedural norms, suggesting a larger breakdown at the agency.”
The committee informed Martin in early January that it was initiating a formal investigation of FCC management practices. Then, on March 13, Democratic and Republican committee leaders issued a sweeping request for documents including internal memos, travel records, e-mails, talking points, phone logs and meeting schedules of Martin, Martin’s staff and other commissioners.
One of the problem areas under Martin has been delays of open meetings at the GOP-led FCC, with Martin and Democratic commissioners at times trading barbs over blame. Martin said he runs the agency no differently than his Republican and Democratic predecessors.
Martin has attempted to be responsive to congressional concerns. Since the beginning of the year, the FCC chief has held monthly press briefings to preview upcoming votes and to field reporters’ questions on telecom issues generally. Last week, the FCC began a new policy of giving the public three weeks notice of open-meeting agenda topics.