Subject: (Kelley) Senator McCain proposes FCC reorganization (fwd)
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 124024 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 10:24:15 -0800
From: Libby Kelley
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Cc: wgl0@cdc.gov, laihenry@aol.com
Subject: Senator McCain proposes FCC reorganization
Roy:
This has been under discussion for some time within the administration and
the Congress. I have heard that there may be a proposal to transfer
federal agency responsibility to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Does
anyone on your list know anything about the April 13 proposal from Senate
Commerce? This may be a further attempt to "bury" the questions about the
federal role in sponsoring the scientifc studies on EMF/RF and being
responsive to citizen concerns about tower siting applications. The
Commerce Department has much broader authority over all aspects of american
(and global) private enterprise.
Libby Kelley
Posted at 5:58 p.m. PST Thursday, March 25, 1999
McCain wants to revamp
FCC
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate's top telecommunications
lawmaker says he wants to revamp the federal agency that shapes how
Americans get telephone and TV services.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, chairman of the Senate
Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications
Commission, said Thursday he'll offer legislation to ``refocus the
commission'' but didn't give details.
McCain and other, mostly Republican, lawmakers have
accused the FCC of being too regulatory in implementing a 1996
telecommunications law that allowed cable TV, local telephone and
long-distance companies to enter each others' businesses. The FCC
disagrees.
The senator -- along with Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La.,
who chairs the House Commerce Committee's telecommunications panel -- also
wants to limit the FCC's ability to review mergers involving
telecommunications companies.
``We can no longer treat with benign neglect the
commission's notorious merger approval process which imposes needless
costs and delay on the parties,'' McCain said. Like Tauzin, McCain
questioned the need for the FCC to review antitrust aspects of a
merger when antitrust experts -- the Department of Justice or the Federal
Trade Commission -- already do that.
FCC Chairman Bill Kennard has defended his agency's
role in merger reviews, saying it considers factors that federal
antitrust authorities don't.
McCain also said the FCC shouldn't force Bell Atlantic
and GTE nor SBC Communications and Ameritech to open to rivals their local
markets in several states as a condition of receiving approval for their
mergers. The FCC has been considering imposing such conditions on the
mergers.
``Hopefully, the FCC won't be inspired to unearth yet
another new requirement,'' McCain said.
He criticized the FCC for not removing regulations so
the nation's Bell companies can offer high-speed Internet and data
services across local calling boundaries, which technically constitutes a
long-distance service.
McCain said he'll hold a hearing on the matter on
April 13 and offer a legislative fix, which he didn't detail.
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html