How necessary is 'necessary'? (Capital Watch).(disagreement among FCC members regarding Congress' mandate to review commission rules )(Brief Article)

Broadcasting & Cable, March, 2003

There is a major disagreement between FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin and the other members of the FCC over how to interpret Congress's mandate to review commission rules every two years and scrap or change ones deemed unnecessary. Martin turns out to be even more deregulatory when it comes to defining what rules are "necessary" in the public's interest than are either his Democratic or Republican colleagues.

In a partial dissent from a report on the biennial review of telecom rules, Martin calls "untenable" the report's definition of "necessary" as "useful," "meaningful" or "appropriate." It was the commission's first statement of how it interprets the congressional directive. Martin, in contrast with the majority, interprets the word as "indispensable."...

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