A Republican US senator has complained about a lack of transparency at the FCC after the telecoms regulator allegedly ignored his questions on the satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared.
Senator Charles Grassley originally sent the FCC a letter in…
A Republican US senator has complained about a lack of transparency at the FCC after the telecoms regulator allegedly ignored his questions on the satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared.
Senator Charles Grassley originally sent the FCC a letter in April, asking for documents showing its communications with LightSquared, as well as Harbinger Capital Partners (LightSquared’s main backer), Harbinger’s head (Philip Falcone) and the White House.
In a new letter to the FCC, dated 5 July, Grassley said that he had received a reply to his original request from the FCC on 31 May, but that it had not answered his questions.
According to Grassley, his staff followed up with further questions, but they were told by the FCC that the regulator “chose to intentionally ignore” the senator’s requests for documents.
The FCC staff allegedly said that they did not reply to questions unless it came from the chairman of the House committee on Energy and Commerce or the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The FCC staff added that if a freedom of interest request was made, the FCC would “draw out” the process for approximately two years and that any documents that were eventually provided would be heavily redacted.
These views were contained in the letter the FCC sent to Grassley in late May.
Grassley wrote in his letter: “As none of this information was contained in the letter you sent to me, I am writing to see if it is in fact accurate and if so, explore the FCC’s apparent decision to take an extreme position against transparency, which would stifle congressional oversight and public scrutiny in direct contradiction to President Obama’s stated policies and instructions on open government.”
Grassley’s letter also contained a series of questions on the FCC’s stance towards providing documents, a question regarding an SEC investigation into Philip Falcone, and a question on whether the FCC has “any safeguards to ensure that valuable spectrum allocations are not made to serial violators of our nation’s securities laws.”
In January, the FCC gave LightSquared a waiver to rules governing its ATC licence. The FCC also ordered that LightSquared ensure that it deals with concerns that its technology interferes with GPS signals. After receiving fierce criticism from the GPS industry, LightSquared submitted its report on the GPS interference issue in late June.
The FCC was unavailable for comment.
