WASHINGTON, DC - The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), today examined the Federal Communications Commission’s management and spending. The hearing continues the subcommittee’s oversight of the commission and follows the committee’s requests for documents regarding the commission’s workload and backlog.
“While FCC process reform continues to wait for the Senate, the Energy and Commerce Committee has kept our foot on the accelerator and continued with our oversight efforts to improve FCC processes," said Walden. “In this time of transformative technological innovation and unprecedented private investment in the communications sector of our economy, we must ensure that the FCC remains vigilant in executing the duties prescribed by Congress, operates within the bounds of the law, and does these things transparently, effectively, and efficiently. The American people deserve no less."
Members heard from FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins and Inspector General David Hunt and asked questions about the commission’s allocation of resources and staff and the ability of the Inspector General to act independently.
Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) pressed Inspector General Hunt about the failures within the FCC’s financial system, which was last updated in 2010. “According to the report, functionality and integration issues continue to exist, and as a result, certain activity continues to be processed manually in order to maintain the accuracy of the system data. You also noted that there are security deficiencies in these IT systems. The report notes that these deficiencies have been identified by audits over the course of the last several years. Would you say it’s fair to say the new system didn’t fix the problems it was intended to correct?" asked Latta.
Hunt confirmed the findings and said, “We believe they are trying to upgrade and fix, but to have in this day and age manual entries, when so much money has been spent on computer technology and information technology to have people have to look and handwrite items in just does not seem like a fair use of time." Watch their full exchange here.
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Hunt also detailed a number of areas where the Inspector General’s office, which isn’t wholly independent from agency leadership, has had issues accomplishing his office’s objectives. While he admits his office has “generally had a good working relationship with agency management," he laments that there have been issues hiring the staff necessary to thoroughly examine the waste, fraud, and abuse within FCC programs.
“Contrary to Chairman Wheeler’s oft-touted remedy, the solution to the commission’s woes is not simply to throw more money at the problem, but to use the money available to the commission more effectively," added Walden.
