Senate Commerce Teeing Up FCC Oversight Hearing

According to various sources, the Senate Commerce Committee is planning a Sept. 15 FCC oversight hearing featuring all the commissioners.

No word on whether there is a main topic of discussion, but the FCC is in the midst of proceedings on a number of high-profile, hot-button issues with both Republicans and Democrats on the committee, including but not limited to the FCC's set-top box proposal, broadband privacy proposal, business data services revamp proposal, 5G rollout plans, and possible program diversity Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Initial reports were that FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who has been a driving force behind the program diversity inquiry and possible NPRM, was not expected to make it, but an FCC source signaled that she was rearranging her schedule so that she could, indeed, attend and that the hearing will have a full complement of commissioners.

A Clyburn spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.