FCC Plan for Office of Economics and Analytics Gets Thumbs-Up From TPI, AEI Fellows
An FCC plan to create an Office of Economics and Analytics received endorsements from Tech Policy Institute Senior Fellow Thomas Lenard and American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Roslyn Layton. Wayne Leighton, chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy…
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Analysis, and his team "produced an excellent report" on creating an OEA that's "everything Chairman [Ajit] Pai could have hoped for," blogged Lenard Thursday. "The report contains a thoughtful and carefully researched analysis of how to better incorporate economics into the agency’s policy making, drawing on lessons from other agencies and adapting them to the needs and culture of the FCC," Lenard wrote. "Among its most important recommendations, the report proposes that the 'OEA should produce a separate, non-public memorandum on economic issues to accompany documents circulated to the Commission.' The commissioners will undoubtedly not always accept the recommendations of the economists, but their analysis, whether or not it supports the Commission’s ultimate position, should be available to the commissioners unfiltered." Pai's OEA draft order on the Jan. 30 tentative agenda is his "most important accomplishment for those who believe that policy should be informed by the best available evidence," wrote Layton, whose Forbes opinion piece was titled: "Making Government Work Again: New Office to Strengthen Role of Data at FCC."