Time to Prod the FCC

Lost in the shuffle yesterday was an important development in the emerging NSA phone records scandal. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps went on-the-record calling for an investigation into the role of the major telecom companies in handing over customer phone records to the NSA. Copps was quoted by Reuters as saying:

The FCC should initiate an inquiry into whether the phone
companies' involvement violated Section 222 or any other
provisions of the Communications Act.

The AP quotes Copps as saying:

There is no doubt that protecting the security of the
American people is our government's No. 1 responsibility.
But in a digital age where collecting, distributing and
manipulating consumers' personal information is as easy as a
click of a button, the privacy of our citizens must still matter. . .

We need to be certain that the companies over which the
FCC has public-interest oversight have not gone -- or been
asked to go -- to a place where they should not be.

To understand why Copps' remarks are significant, it's important to understand how the Federal Communications Commission is structured. The FCC is an independent executive agency, meaning that its commissioners do not serve at the pleasure of the president and cannot be fired or ordered by the president not to investigate this matter. There are normally five FCC commissioners, only three of whom may be from the same political party. They are appointed by the president for fixed terms of five years. At the moment, however, there is a vacancy on the Commission. As it stands, there are two Democratic commissioners and two Republican ones. Copps is a Democrat, as is Jonathan Adelstein, a former aide to Senator Tom Daschle. The two Republican commissioners are Deborah Tyler Tate and the Commission Chairman Kevin Martin.

As Chairman, Martin's opinion is the most important, and unfortunately, he served as the Deputy General Counsel for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000. It's worth noting, though, that Martin was first appointed in July 2001, meaning that the Bush administration's terrorism policy was not a factor in his selection. And his current term extends well beyond the end of the Bush presidency. I know very little about the internal politics of the FCC, but there is at least reason to hope that the FCC Commissioners are less susceptible to political pressures than many other agency heads.

The FCC is charged with enforcing the nations communications laws, laws which may have been violated when the telecom companies agreed to hand over their customer records to the NSA. If the FCC decides to investigate this matter, there will be very little that the Bush administration can do to stop it. The FCC has enormous leverage of the telecom companies and can get answers from them if it wants to.

I'm generally not a big fan of Malkin-esque calls to action, but if you feel like encouraging the FCC Commissioners to investigate this matter, feel free to drop them a line:

Kevin J. Martin
Deborah Tyler Tate
Michael J. Copps
Jonathan S. Adelstein