Reforming the FCC

Why did so many federal functions fail under this last administration. First, because this last administration did not believe in the role of civil service. When you do not believe in the work of government agencies, you will put people in charge who will turn that belief into reality. The greatest proof of this was FEMA. FEMA before BUSH was a very adept agency. But put people in charge that do not believe in the work of FEMA, and you get a FEMA that cannot respond to Katrina.

Next, and this is consistent with not believing or taking seriously the work of government, the leadership that was put in charge were put there as political patronage and not as a result of competency or vision. The FEMA leader had no experience in disaster leadership. The FCC’s leadership came from working on the Bush campaign in florida and other political connections.

The number one thing to do to change reform the FCC is to change the leadership. The position of commissioner cannot be a position of political patronage but must be given to experts in the field who are strongly interested in the advancement of the field.

There must be a belief and affirmation of the institution. The current administration came in trying to destroy the institution of civil service. The shell game with DHS had more to do with getting rid of civil servants than it did security. DHS was set up as a new agency where the staff would not have civil service status. While the White House failed to achieve this goal - it got shot down in courts - the end result is that the expert civil servants fled DHS for other agencies. At the FCC, Martin referred to the KGB atmosphere growing on you. You did not question Martin, or you were transfered to an idiot job. There are whole banks of experts inside the FCC who have had no work for 4 years. Most of those left and went on to better things. Those that remained might be Economists with PHDs who were given the tasks of responding to “Do Not Call” complaint backlogs - and told ahead of time that the end result should be that none of the complaints be actionable. The atmosphere inside the FCC for the staff was as bad as anyone can remember. The Martins came in and destroyed the FCC institution and it can no longer function.

Bottom line - the problem with the FCC right now is the leadership. There may be ways the institution can improve - but the institution itself right now is deeply disfunctional as a result of 4 years of KGB like atmosphere.