Need for FCC Internet Authority,New Telecom Law Debated

摘要

The reason a federal appeals court last spring decided that the FCC could not exercise "ancillary jurisdiction" over broadband network management was that it was uncomfortable with "the prospect of five unelected Com-missioners making fundamental decisions that are very important to the everyday life of Americans and that most people probably think Congress should be making," ac-cording to FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick.rn"That's certainly a reasonable concern, but it is the regime that Congress put in place through the Commu-nications Act [which] gives us very broad jurisdiction" by using phrases like public interest, unreasonable, and unjust, that require the FCC "to exercise a broad degree of discretion," Mr. Schlick added during a Nov. 22 panel discussion at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention.