Costly FCC guilty of ‘regulation without representation,’ says group
Posted by Chris Woodward (American Family News)
Americans are shelling out more than $140 billion each year just to remain in compliance with the countless regulations being pumped out by the FCC, making that agency one of the costliest in government.
A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute finds the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be the third costliest agency in government. The report, released on Thursday, estimates the FCC costs Americans $142 billion per year to comply with regulations imposed by the federal agency. The FCC is tasked with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable, as well as cellular and broadband Internet provision.
Ryan Young is a CEI fellow in regulatory studies. “The FCC is a very busy agency, and we think it costs $142 billion, according to our best guess,” he shares. “That is the third-most expensive federal agency. Only the EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services are more expensive.”
In terms of regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency costs Americans $353 billion annually; HHS comes in at just under $185 billion.
The main driver of the FCC’s cost, according to CEI, involves regulations, specifically wireless spectrum regulations.
“The FCC gives licenses for who can broadcast what on which frequencies; that adds up to $77 billion,” explains Young. “They do such a poor job of that, that most of that $77 billion is in actual opportunity costs, as in better uses that the FCC does not allow more profitable uses, higher prices for consumers.”
The FCC’s Net Neutrality regulation is also to the tune of $25 billion annually, if it gets implemented. That rule, which CEI calls “infrastructure socialism,” is being challenged in court.
Citing what it describes as “an alarming lack of transparency” at the FCC, CEI suggests such reforms as improved transparency and quality of rulemaking; annual, independently-driven elimination of dated or obsolete regulations; and publishing of the estimated cost for every new rule established – not just those falling under the $100 million cost reporting requirements.
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