II 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3042 

To provide for a study by the National Academy of Sciences on the technical 

policy decisions and technical personnel at the Federal Communications 

Commission. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 25, 2010 

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

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

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To provide for a study by the National Academy of Sciences 

on the technical policy decisions and technical personnel 

at the Federal Communications Commission. 

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

3 SECTION 1. TECHNICAL POLICY AND PERSONNEL STUDY. 

4 (a) STUDY.— 

5 (1) REQUIREMENT.—The Chairman of the Fed6 eral Communications Commission (hereafter in this 

7 Act referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’) shall enter 

8 into an arrangement with the National Academy of 

9 Sciences to complete a study of the technical policy 


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1 decisionmaking and the technical personnel at the 

2 Commission. 

3 (2) CONTENTS.—The study required under 

4 paragraph (1) shall— 

5 (A) review technical policy decision making 

6 of the Commission, including if the Commission 

7 has the adequate resources and processes in 

8 place to properly evaluate and account for the 

9 technical aspects and impact of the Commis10 sion’s regulatory rulemaking; 

11 (B) review— 

12 (i) the timeliness of the rulemaking 

13 process utilized by the Commission; and 

14 (ii) the impact of regulatory delay on 

15 telecommunications innovation; 

16 (C) based upon the review undertaken pur17 suant to subparagraph (B), make recommenda18 tions for the Commission to streamline its rule19 making process; 

20 (D) evaluate the current staffing levels and 

21 skill sets of technical personnel at the Commis22 sion to determine if such staffing levels and 

23 skill sets are aligned with the current and fu24 ture needs of the Commission, as well as with 


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1 current and future issues that come or may 

2 come under the jurisdiction of the Commission; 

3 (E) examine the current technical staff 

4 and engineering recruiting procedures at the 

5 Commission and make recommendations on how 

6 the Commission can improve its efforts to hire 

7 and retain engineers and other technical staff 

8 members; 

9 (F) examine— 

10 (i) the reliance of the Commission on 

11 external contractors in the development of 

12 policy and in evaluating the technical as13 pects of services, devices, and issues that 

14 arise under the jurisdiction of the Commis15 sion; and 

16 (ii) the potential costs and benefits of 

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

18 perform the duties that are currently being 

19 outsourced to external contractors; and 

20 (G) compare the decisionmaking process of 

21 the Commission with the decisionmaking proc22 ess used by similar regulatory authorities in 

23 other industrialized countries, including the Eu24 ropean Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, and 

25 the United Kingdom. 


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1 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the 

2 date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall trans3 mit a report describing the results of the study and rec4 ommendations required by subsection (a) to the Com5 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

6 Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of 

7 the House of Representatives. 

8 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

9 are authorized to be appropriated to the Chairman of the 

10 Commission for carrying out this section $1,000,000 for 

11 fiscal years 2011 and 2012. 

Æ 


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