II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 611 

To provide greater technical resources to FCC Commissioners. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 17, 2011 

Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. WARNER) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To provide greater technical resources to FCC 

Commissioners. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘FCC Technical Exper5 tise Capacity Heightening Act’’ or the ‘‘FCC TECH Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF TECHNICAL STAFF. 

7 Section 4(f)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 

8 (47 U.S.C. 154(f)(2)) is amended by inserting after the 

9 first sentence the following new sentence: ‘‘Each commis10 sioner may also appoint an electrical engineer or computer 


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1 scientist to provide the commissioner technical consulta2 tion when appropriate and to interface with the Office of 

3 Engineering and Technology, Commission Bureaus, and 

4 other technical staff of the Commission for additional 

5 technical input and resources, provided that such engineer 

6 or scientist holds an undergraduate or graduate degree 

7 from an institution of higher education in their respective 

8 field of expertise.’’. 

9 SEC. 3. TECHNICAL POLICY AND PERSONNEL STUDY. 

10 (a) STUDY.— 

11 (1) REQUIREMENTS OF STUDY.—The Chairman 

12 of the Federal Communications Commission (here13 after in this section referred to as the ‘‘Commis14 sion’’) shall enter into an arrangement with the Na15 tional Academy of Sciences to complete a study of 

16 the technical policy decisionmaking and the technical 

17 personnel at the Commission. 

18 (2) CONTENTS.—The study required under 

19 paragraph (1) shall— 

20 (A) review the technical policy decision21 making of the Commission, including if the 

22 Commission has the adequate resources and 

23 processes in place to properly evaluate and ac24 count for the technical aspects and impact of 

25 the Commission’s regulatory rulemaking; 


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1 (B) review— 

2 (i) the timeliness of the rulemaking 

3 process utilized by the Commission; and 

4 (ii) the impact of regulatory delay on 

5 telecommunications innovation; 

6 (C) based upon the review undertaken pur7 suant to subparagraph (B), make recommenda8 tions for the Commission to streamline its rule9 making process; 

10 (D) evaluate the current staffing levels and 

11 skill sets of technical personnel at the Commis12 sion to determine if such staffing levels and 

13 skill sets are aligned with the current and fu14 ture needs of the Commission, as well as with 

15 current and future issues that come or may 

16 come under the jurisdiction of the Commission 

17 and shall include a recommendation on the ap18 propriate number or percentage of technical 

19 personnel that should constitute the Commis20 sion workforce; 

21 (E) examine the current technical staff 

22 and engineering recruiting procedures at the 

23 Commission and make recommendations on how 

24 the Commission can improve its efforts to hire 


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1 and retain engineers and other technical staff 

2 members; 

3 (F) examine— 

4 (i) the reliance of the Commission on 

5 external contractors in the development of 

6 policy and in evaluating the technical as7 pects of services, devices, and issues that 

8 arise under the jurisdiction of the Commis9 sion; and 

10 (ii) the potential costs and benefits of 

11 the development of ‘‘in-house’’ resources to 

12 perform the duties that are currently being 

13 outsourced to external contractors; and 

14 (G) compare the decisionmaking process of 

15 the Commission with the decisionmaking proc16 ess used by similar regulatory authorities in 

17 other industrialized countries, including the Eu18 ropean Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, and 

19 the United Kingdom. 

20 (b) REPORT.—The Commission shall transmit a re21 port describing the results of the study and recommenda22 tions required by subsection (a) to the Committee on Com23 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the 

24 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 

25 Representatives. 


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1 (c) OFFSET OF ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Section 

2 4(a) of Public Law 109–34 (47 U.S.C. 703(a)) is amended 

3 by striking ‘‘annual’’ and inserting ‘‘biennial’’. 

Æ 


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