Critics of the Federal Communications Commission told a House subcommittee Friday that the agency is too large and has taken on more power than Congress intended it to have when it was established in 1934.
"The commission should get out of the social policy arena," Jeffrey Eisenach, president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, told the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology. The foundation studies the implications of technological developments for public policy.
"Rather than focusing on creating new missions and expanded responsibilities, [the FCC's strategic plan] ought to point the way to the smaller, less expensive and less powerful FCC," Eisenach testified.
Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, quizzed FCC Inspector General H. Walker Feaster about the potential for administrative changes at the commission.
"Do you see any areas within the agency that are bloated, could be pared down, could be made more cost efficient?" Turner asked.
Feaster said that the FCC was not overly large, though he acknowledged it had expanded in the 26 years since he joined the agency.
FCC Chairman William Kennard said restructuring efforts are already in the works.
"We are in the process of reorganizing the FCC as we speak," he said. "The agency has got to change ... the challenge is to make sure we are facilitating a competitive marketplace [and] make sure that the innovations are reaching all Americans."
But Eisenach and Adam Thierer, a research analyst with the Heritage Foundation, argued the FCC should relinquish its hold on the E-rate program to the Department of Education. E-rate is a federal initiative that provides discounts on telecommunications and Internet technologies to elementary and secondary schools and public libraries in the United States.
"I think that there is a role for government to play in seeing that the Internet is accessible to our schools, but I think the Department of Education would be better able to regulate that program," Eisenach told subcommittee members.
Kennard said the FCC should oversee the E-rate because its responsibility includes ensuring rural areas, inner-city areas and low-income people have access to communication services, including the Internet.