O'Rielly Wants to Limit Delegated Authority, Empower Commissioners

from being approved under delegated authority, the blog post said. Chairman Ajit Pai already reversed some policies approved on delegated authority under former Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1702030070), but O’Rielly’s ideas would make it harder for such approvals to happen over the objections of commissioners, the blog post said. “The Commission delegates way too many substantive decisions to Bureau staff, usurping the role and obligations of duly appointed and confirmed Commissioners,” O’Rielly said. Allowing one commissioner to block delegated items could be unwieldy and cause too many delays, O’Rielly said. “If a Commissioner can't convince at least one other to join their cause, we should move forward posthaste,” O’Rielly said. The process changes would also include a requirement that commissioners receive 48-hours' notice before any item is decided under delegated authority, O’Rielly said. “This reasonable practice allows a sufficient timeframe for Commissioners to determine whether the proposed decision should be decided by the full Commission,” he said. Under the proposal, if two commissioners flag an item for removal from delegated authority, it should be voted by the full FCC within seven days or five business days to prevent undue delay, O’Rielly said. If the vote doesn’t happen in that time, the item would be approved by the full commission or released on delegated authority, O’Rielly said. “A requesting Commissioner that does not vote by the deadline risks the possibility that their failure to act would be deemed an approval and the item would be disposed of by the full Commission,” O’Rielly said. “Fixing the overuse of delegated authority should be high on our list of priorities as the new Commission examines internal process reform.”