FCC commissioner blasts his agency for over-regulation

Republican Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell took his agency to task for issuing too many burdensome regulations in testimony before a House subcommittee on Thursday.

The commissioner called for a “thorough review of every FCC rule” and said that “all future regulatory proceedings should start with a thorough market analysis” to ensure that regulations do not hamper business growth.

His testimony came in a hearing before the Energy and Commerce’s Oversight subcommittee. McDowell was one of seven officials from federal regulatory agencies called to testify about easing government regulations.

“Removing unneeded rules can liberate capital currently spent on lawyers and filing fees — capital that would be better spent on powerful innovations,” McDowell said.

McDowell was particularly critical of net-neutrality regulations adopted by the FCC last December that aim to prevent Internet providers from discriminating against certain kinds of content.

“Those rules are unnecessary at best, and will deter investment in badly needed next-generation infrastructure at worst,” he said.

President Obama issued an executive order in January requiring agencies to use the least burdensome methods to achieve their regulatory goals. In a hearing last month, Cass Sunstein from the Office of Management and Budget testified that independent agencies such as the FCC are not required to follow the president’s order, but believed that they should.

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