Under pressure from House Republicans, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced today that he has amended a plan to close two-thirds of the FCC’s field offices and is now proposing to keep 15 of the 24 open, rather than only eight. Mr. Wheeler and other FCC officials had come under intense criticism from members of Congress, public safety groups, broadcasters, private wireless representatives, amateur radio operators, FCC employee union officials, and others for the proposal to close two-thirds of the offices and reduce field office personnel by about half.
Mr. Wheeler and other officials had argued that the originally proposed changes were warranted because the FCC has faced years of flat budgets and had a field office staff that was not well-distributed where the most important types of complaints were occurring: RF interference. They had argued that the remaining staff would be more nimble and address complaints in a timely manner, helped if necessary by a “Tiger Team” that could be deployed from Columbia, Md., to anywhere in the country and the pre-deployment of equipment in key locations. They said that FCC personnel would still be able to respond to public safety complaints within a day and to most of the country within four to six hours. They also said they would upgrade equipment in the field.
“Today, I circulated to my fellow Commissioners a modified plan to modernize our field offices,” Mr. Wheeler said in a statement released this afternoon. “These changes create the opportunity for the FCC to be more efficient with its resources while actually improving 21st Century field activities. This updated plan represents the best of both worlds: rigorous management analysis combined with extensive stakeholder and Congressional input. Chairman Walden, Chairman Upton and other lawmakers have contributed to this effort through their thoughtful engagement.
Input from industry and public safety stakeholders has further informed the modifications, and I appreciate the important role played by the National Association of Broadcasters in getting to a constructive result. I urge my colleagues to approve this revised plan with dispatch so that we may get on with improving the agency’s productivity.”
The revised plan is expected to get sufficient support from other Commissioners. Reps. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Greg Walden (R., Ore.), chairman of the communications and technology subcommittee, said they were pleased with the compromise. The committee announced that it had cancelled a scheduled June 11 hearing on the original field office closure plan. “Communities across America will continue to be served even as the commission becomes more efficient – it’s a win-win,” said Mr. Upton. “It also demonstrates how much we can accomplish when we work together to tackle the many tough issues we face.”
“We found a good solution that makes sense,” Mr. Walden said. “These changes will keep field offices open in strategic locations and help ensure that the commission can fulfill its responsibilities to the public and public safety communities. This agreement strikes a balance between the important work of FCC field agents and streamlining field operations to ensure the efficient use of taxpayer dollars.”
The committee said in a news release that the compromise proposal will “ensure better rapid response capabilities for the west, provide a mechanism for escalating interference complaints, improve enforcement of the FCC’s rules against pirate radio operators, and prevent the commission from transferring field office jobs to the FCC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.”
A Democratic committee aide told TRDaily that Democrats were supportive of the field office compromise. The original field office closure plan called for the following offices to remain open: New York City, Columbia, Md., Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Under the compromise, the following offices will also remain open: Hawaii; Anchorage, Alaska (contract staff); San Juan, Puerto Rico (contract staff); Portland, Ore.; Denver (which will get a second Tiger Team); Boston; and New Orleans, according to numerous sources.
The Kansas City, Mo., office will get a field office staff rotation for a few days each month to handle matters there. Equipment will be prepositioned in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Seattle, and Billings, Mont. Mr. Wheeler also committed to the use of a new escalation process for RF complaints and a new complaint input system.
The FCC would also have new speed-of-disposal goals, including one day for public safety complaints, according to a source briefed on the proposal. FCC officials had indicated they would do that as part of the original plan. FCC officials also have told stakeholders that the field operations would get the first shot at any money the FCC saves by closing field offices.
“NAB thanks the many members of Congress who expressed concern over proposed cuts in FCC field offices, and we applaud Chairman Wheeler and his staff for resolving this issue in a manner that better protects against airwave interference,” said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president-communications at NAB, which had expressed concern about the original field office plan.
“We also salute the Chairman Wheeler’s willingness to address the rampant growth of pirate radio, which creates significant interference challenges for radio listeners who rely daily on their legally-licensed hometown stations.” In an e-mail, obtained by TRDaily, to executives at state broadcaster associations, Rick Kaplan, NAB’s general counsel and EVP-legal and regulatory affairs, said “Chairman Wheeler has agreed to work directly with NAB to step up enforcement on pirate radio stations, including holding a roundtable with broadcasters within 30 days.”
Mr. Kaplan said the compromise field office closure plan will “mitigate some of the damage that would have happened had Chairman Wheeler’s original plan to gut its field offices come to fruition. Over the past several days, we have been working with the FCC, Members of Congress, public safety and the wireless industry to develop a plan that would ensure better enforcement than under the initial proposal.” “CTIA appreciates the attention of the Commission and the House Energy and Commerce Committee to the importance of interference protection in delivering mobile broadband services,” said Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs for the trade group. “We are pleased that the Commission committed to keeping the majority of the field offices open and working with stakeholders on a mechanism for escalating and resolving interference complaints in a timely manner, which is of the utmost importance to our members and our wireless consumers.”
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which also had expressed concern about the original plan, thanked lawmakers and Mr. Wheeler, as well as “the other FCC Commissioners for listening to the concerns of the public safety community about the closing of most of its 24 field offices. NPSTC is grateful to the other stakeholders who commented to the FCC, particularly the many public safety practitioners who shared stories of interference in the field to illustrate the potential problem of field office closures. “Interference to public safety communications has the potential to impact lives; it is not merely an inconvenience,” NPSTC added. “When interference occurs, the response from the FCC must be fast, effective, and performed by trained and equipped field agents. . To many outside the D.C. Beltway, the FCC is the local field office. Maintaining a presence in the remaining cities will contribute significantly to compliance with the FCC Rules and Regulations and uninterrupted communications.”
Mark Crosby, president and chief executive officer of the Enterprise Wireless Alliance, another critic of the original plan, also said he was pleased with the compromise. “I think it’s a good compromise,” he told TRDaily. “The [Enforcement] Bureau needed a little improvement. You’ve got to start somewhere.”- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com