[178550] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: One FCC neutrality elephant: disabilities compliance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lamar Owen)
Sat Feb 28 13:07:49 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2015 13:06:43 -0500
From: Lamar Owen <lowen@pari.edu>
cc: "<nanog@nanog.org>" <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <2D167235-5C33-4CD9-B3B8-BC33E06AA0DA@beckman.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
On 02/27/2015 03:12 PM, Mel Beckman wrote:
> Two pages? Read the news, man.
I'd rather read the actual regulations, from the source, in 47CFR=A78. =20
They're public. The enforcement won't come from what the news said.
> You say you haven't read the actual R&O. Nobody in the public sector,=20
> or even in Congress AFAIK, has read it. The Order's 300-plus pages=20
> were never publicly released or openly debated.This is another "you=20
> must pass it to see what's in it" debacle, without the luxury of=20
> having any semblance of democratic process or transparency.
The R&O is not limited to just the text of the actual regulations. The=20
R&O will include the discussion and the rationale behind the adopted=20
rules, along with quotes from those who commented on the action, and=20
further language, including the derivation of the regulatory authority. =20
The actual regulation, much shorter than the R&O, is already public, in=20
47CFR=A78. The R&O is the 'what' plus the 'why,' 'how,' and 'when'=20
whereas the new section in 47CFR is just the 'what.' It takes a lot=20
more time to get the 'why,' 'how,' and 'when' into shape for publication=20
than it does to get the 'what' into shape for publication. The=20
enforcement will come from the 'what.'
This is standard, normal, FCC procedure. The NPRM was 99 pages, plus,=20
with proposed rules of two pages. The R&O is reported as being 300=20
pages perhaps, with actual adopted rules of about 8 pages (depending=20
upon the font used; I took the eCFR version of 47CFR=A78 and printed it t=
o=20
PDF, and that PDF ran 8 pages). This is not unusual, and is something=20
I've seen many times. The process is quite transparent, just with=20
greater latency than many people like, and you do need to know where to=20
look, although the FCC has made it a lot easier to find stuff than it=20
was a few years back. The statement from the FCC spokesperson doesn't=20
quote a length; we'll see how long it will be. I personally look=20
forward to reading it; FCC R&O's tend to be better reading than the=20
resulting sections in 47CFR, but when the EB knocks on your door they're=20
going to hold you to 47CFR, not the establishing R&O.
This is a lot better than the days where you had to subscribe to a=20
service, like Pike and Fischer's, to get even the Daily Digest, much=20
less up to the day copies of the CFR, like we now can have. The latency=20
for Commission actions is typically on the order of months; the NPRM's=20
date is May 15, 2014.
You can see more into this by looking at the docket's page at=20
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding/view?name=3D14-28 . There were over 2=
=20
million filings in this docket, with almost 7,000 in the last 30 days=20
alone. I would imagine the first place to have the actual R&O text will=20
be the docket's page linked above; you can even follow it with its RSS=20
feed and get it as soon as its released.
