WASHINGTON-The war of words between House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard escalated last week, with Kennard calling Tauzin irresponsible for alleging in this newspaper and elsewhere that the agency’s merger review process encourages shakedowns and other improprieties.
Kennard challenged Tauzin to come forward with specific examples of FCC corruption.
“[It] is unfair, irresponsible and unworthy of a public official for you to cast aspersions on the integrity of the FCC in this manner without citing facts or examples of any such conduct,” said Kennard, in a Feb. 15 letter to Tauzin.
Tauzin says telecom lobbyists making the allegations are afraid to come forward because of fear of reprisal from the FCC.
That being the case, Tauzin, speaking to several reporters on a conference call last Tuesday, said he wants to “shed light that this [corruption] is happening.”
In an interview with RCR last month, Tauzin said the “FCC has been an enabler of corruption.” He cited shakedowns as one form the corruption takes.
Kennard, a Democratic Clinton appointee, said he believed no such corruption exists at the FCC.
While Tauzin said he has the highest regard for Kennard, the Louisiana lawmaker went on to say he believes the lobbyists who he said have relayed horror stories about the FCC.
“I believe there are massive payments being made in the millions of dollars,” said Tauzin. Tauzin said that because it takes the FCC so long to conduct merger reviews, firms become vulnerable to shakedowns by other companies and to demands by the FCC to give up something in return for merger approval.
While the Justice Department relies almost exclusively on antitrust law to scrutinize mergers, the FCC has added leeway to consider whether proposed mergers are in the “public interest.”
FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a big critic of the FCC merger review process and of Kennard’s implementation of the universal service mandates of the 1996 telecom act, said last week he could not provide any specific examples of FCC corruption. But he reiterated his view that the FCC merger review process is flawed.
While conceding he has the power to subpoena testimony of telecom lobbyists who claim there is FCC corruption, Tauzin said he does not want to go that route. “I don’t want to come off as Joe McCarthy,” said Tauzin, referring to the former Wisconsin senator made infamous for trying to root out communists during the 1950s.
Tauzin said he believes he can be most effective by changing the way the FCC conducts telecom merger reviews.
A bill, introduced last November by Rep. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and pending before the House telecom subcommittee, would restrict FCC merger authority and prohibit the agency from imposing conditions necessary for merger approval.
In addition, Tauzin this year plans to introduce legislation to downsize the FCC. It is unclear whether either bill will make it through Congress this year.
Kennard said any disagreements over merger reviews and FCC reform should be conducted through the normal process of legislation.
“I entreat you to conduct this debate in substantive terms, and to cease couching it in rhetoric that unfairly implies unethical conduct on the part of the FCC and its staff,” said Kennard.
RCR reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver contributed to this report.
