WASHINGTON-The telecom industry has a cozy relationship with the Federal Communications Commission, according to a new report.
The Center for Public Integrity said FCC officials have taken more than 2,500 trips paid for by companies and trade groups from the telecom and broadcasting sectors during the past eight years. The total bill picked up by industry for trips, according to the CPI, was $2.8 million.
The watchdog group said the $2.8 million figure is in addition to the $2 million a year in taxpayer dollars that support FCC travel.
CPI’s report, funded by the Ford Foundation and Open Society Institute, also found the FCC increasingly relies on industry-generated data to justify major deregulatory initiatives.
FCC officials quoted in the report defended industry-paid travel as carefully scrutinized and professionally appropriate.
