IIB 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2583 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
NOVEMBER 17, 2015 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation 
AN ACT 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for 
greater transparency and efficiency in the procedures 
followed by the Federal Communications Commission, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Communica-
tions Commission Process Reform Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FCC PROCESS REFORM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title I of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 13. TRANSPARENCY AND EFFICIENCY. 
‘‘(a) INITIAL RULEMAKING AND INQUIRY.— 
‘‘(1) RULEMAKING.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of the enactment of the Federal Com-
munications Commission Process Reform Act of 
2015, the Commission shall complete a rulemaking 
proceeding and adopt procedural changes to its rules 
to maximize opportunities for public participation 
and efficient decisionmaking. 
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS FOR RULEMAKING.—The 
rules adopted under paragraph (1) shall— 
‘‘(A) set minimum comment periods for 
comment and reply comment, subject to a de-
termination by the Commission that good cause 
exists for departing from such minimum com-
ment periods, for— 
‘‘(i) significant regulatory actions, as 
defined in Executive Order No. 12866; and 
‘‘(ii) all other rulemaking proceedings; 
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‘‘(B) establish policies concerning the sub-
mission of extensive new comments, data, or re-
ports towards the end of the comment period; 
‘‘(C) establish policies regarding treatment 
of comments, ex parte communications, and 
data or reports (including statistical reports 
and reports to Congress) submitted after the 
comment period to ensure that the public has 
adequate notice of and opportunity to respond 
to such submissions before the Commission re-
lies on such submissions in any order, decision, 
report, or action; 
‘‘(D) establish procedures for, not later 
than 14 days after the end of each quarter of 
a calendar year (or more frequently, as the 
Commission considers appropriate), publishing 
on the Internet website of the Commission and 
submitting to Congress a report that contains— 
‘‘(i) the status of open rulemaking 
proceedings and proposed orders, decisions, 
reports, or actions on circulation for review 
by the Commissioners, including which 
Commissioners have not cast a vote on an 
order, decision, report, or action that has 
been on circulation for more than 60 days; 
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‘‘(ii) for the petitions, applications, 
complaints, and other requests for action 
by the Commission that were pending at 
the Commission on the last day of such 
quarter (or more frequent period, as the 
case may be)— 
‘‘(I) the number of such requests, 
broken down by the bureau primarily 
responsible for action and, for each 
bureau, the type of request (such as a 
petition, application, or complaint); 
and 
‘‘(II) information regarding the 
amount of time for which such re-
quests have been pending, broken 
down as described in subclause (I); 
and 
‘‘(iii) a list of the congressional inves-
tigations of the Commission that were 
pending on the last day of such quarter (or 
more frequent period, as the case may be) 
and the cost of such investigations, individ-
ually and in the aggregate; 
‘‘(E) establish deadlines (relative to the 
date of filing) for— 
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‘‘(i) in the case of a petition for a de-
claratory ruling under section 1.2 of title 
47, Code of Federal Regulations, issuing a 
public notice of such petition; 
‘‘(ii) in the case of a petition for rule-
making under section 1.401 of such title, 
issuing a public notice of such petition; 
and 
‘‘(iii) in the case of a petition for re-
consideration under section 1.106 or 1.429 
of such title or an application for review 
under section 1.115 of such title, issuing a 
public notice of a decision on the petition 
or application by the Commission or under 
delegated authority (as the case may be); 
‘‘(F) establish guidelines (relative to the 
date of filing) for the disposition of petitions 
filed under section 1.2 of such title; 
‘‘(G) establish procedures for the inclusion 
of the specific language of the proposed rule or 
the proposed amendment of an existing rule in 
a notice of proposed rulemaking; and 
‘‘(H) require notices of proposed rule-
making and orders adopting a rule or amending 
an existing rule that— 
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‘‘(i) create (or propose to create) a 
program activity to contain performance 
measures for evaluating the effectiveness of 
the program activity; and 
‘‘(ii) substantially change (or propose 
to substantially change) a program activity 
to contain— 
‘‘(I) performance measures for 
evaluating the effectiveness of the pro-
gram activity as changed (or proposed 
to be changed); or 
‘‘(II) a finding that existing per-
formance measures will effectively 
evaluate the program activity as 
changed (or proposed to be changed). 
‘‘(3) INQUIRY.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of the Federal Communica-
tions Commission Process Reform Act of 2015, the 
Commission shall complete an inquiry to seek public 
comment on whether and how the Commission 
should— 
‘‘(A) establish procedures for allowing a bi-
partisan majority of Commissioners to place an 
order, decision, report, or action on the agenda 
of an open meeting; 
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