Clarke, Van Hollen Push FCC on EEO Enforcement
Commissioner Geoffrey Starks lent support to a call from House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., for the FCC to begin collecting data on the broadcast workforce's racial, ethnic and gender diversity. Such…
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information could “empower” the agency to improve its oversight of the industry, Clarke and Van Hollen wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Friday. The lawmakers said they were concerned the FCC hadn't been collecting the diversity information since 2004, when it first considered reinstating Form 395-B, saying the absence of that data “limited” the agency's ability to “evaluate” potential discrimination by broadcasters. “When Congress codified Form 395-B collection, our hope was that this data could empower the FCC to better evaluate its [equal employment opportunity] rules, while also providing policymakers and researchers with valuable insights regarding diversity in broadcasting,” Van Hollen and Clarke said. "Over time, the importance of these objectives has only increased.” They requested a “detailed summary of your reasoning, as well as an explanation regarding why you chose not to refresh the record” on the form's reinstatement given the FCC's current reconsideration of the issue (see 1904290176). Starks and fellow Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel were pushing for the FCC to consider EEO enforcement amid February approval of an item eliminating midterm EEO reports (see 1902140053). “For 20 years, the FCC has ignored a statutory mandate to collect broadcast workforce diversity data,” Starks tweeted Friday. “I proposed steps to conclude a 15-year-old EEO rulemaking and was inexplicably denied. I’ll keep asking.”