A rumor had been floating around since at least last fall that as part of the plan to scale back the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau field agents and their duties, they had been told not to go after pirate radio operators as aggressively as they had been.
New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins asked FCC Chairman Wheeler point blank about this issue during a House Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing on FCC oversight.
Rep. Collins reminded the chairman that the first time he asked that question four months ago, Wheeler had said no such directive came from him.
Now, Collins says his office received an email purporting to disclose that the field offices of the Enforcement Bureau’s Northeast region were told anti-pirates were being scaled back and illegal operators would not receive Notices of Apparent Liability. This gets to when the commission reduced the field office staff. After lobbying from NAB, the SBE, Congress and associations representing various communications personnel, a compromise was reached over the summer to retain 15 out of 24 field offices, rather than closing 16 offices as originally planned.
Wheeler said he remembered Collins asked him about the issue before but had not looked into it. Collins asked him to do so now, saying “We’d like to know who the email came from.” Referencing the bureau’s recent advisory notice “that says the FCC already has the ability to take actions against those individuals, it’s disingenuous to say” more congressional action is needed, said Collins.
Wheeler clarified the agency would like Congress to clarify the commission’s authority in this area.
“It’s been suggested that senior managers of the Enforcement Bureau do not want to shut down pirate operators in New York City because they serve certain portions of the city,” said Collins, meaning demographics.
“That would be wrong,” replied Wheeler.
