Following up on a December 3 letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin from House Commerce Committee Chair Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), the Commerce Committee wrote again to Martin Tuesday to tell him that the committee’s investigation into the FCC has begun and to urge Martin to cooperate.
In the earlier letter, Dingell said Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations would be conducting a probe into FCC regulatory procedures, and he says in Tuesday’s letter — also signed by Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX), Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-MI), and subcommittee Ranking Member John Shimkus (R-IL) — that the investigation is intended to “determine if [those procedures] are being conducted in a fair, open, efficient, and transparent manner.”
The letter continues, “This investigation will also address a growing number of allegations received by the committee relating to management practices that may adversely affect the agency’s operation.”
The letter tells Martin to expect a comprehensive document request and interviews of FCC employees and other witnesses in preparation for an oversight hearing later this year. It also asks Martin to notify all FCC employees of their right to communicate with Congress and inform them that it is against the law to interfere with that right, and reminds him of the provisions of federal whistleblower-protection laws.
Dingell then asks Martin to have “all electronic records, including work e-mail and personal e-mail communications relating to official work of the commission, and calendars and schedules of all employees (and paper copies and versions of those records) in the possession or under the control of the Commission or its staff or employees” preserved until a formal, narrower records request can be issued.
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