Eighth-Floor Visits Don't Have 'Dramatic Impact' for Enforcement Targets, Says Bureau Chief
Visiting the FCC eighth floor doesn’t have as much of a “dramatic impact” for the targets of enforcement proceedings as it can have in rulemakings, said Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold in an FCBA brown-bag session Monday. Harold said she has regular meetings with commissioners and occasionally informs them of bureau proceedings to keep them from being surprised. Targets of enforcement actions only sometimes inform the Enforcement Bureau about eighth-floor visits, she said. “It doesn’t always happen,” Harold said.
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Robocalls, USF fraud and pirate radio are the bureau's three main priorities, Harold said. She said the enforcement work she’s most proud of isn't ready to be announced publicly but hinted something “good” is coming on “the public safety front.” The transformation of the FCC’s USF Strike Force into the bureau’s fraud division is also coming up, Harold said. “We’re just waiting on the Federal Register.”
Harold said she's “annoyed” with reports claiming that regulators haven’t pursued collecting forfeitures from enforcement actions involving robocalls. DOJ decides whether to pursue fine collection, said Parul Desai, deputy chief of the Enforcement Bureau’s Telecommunications Consumers Division. Harold said she hasn’t noticed any lack of interest by DOJ in pursuing robocalling fines. Asked if DOJ showed similar enthusiasm for pirate radio forfeitures or other sorts of fines, Harold declined to comment. She also declined to comment on the nature of new technology the FCC is using to combat pirate radio, which was first hinted at in a recent speech by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
The FCC doesn’t have “the bandwidth” to “carry people who can’t do the job or won’t do the job,” Harold said, saying she's willing to fire employees and has done so. Harold also said it can be difficult to find ways to reward good employees at the FCC, compared with the private sector, without tools such as bonuses. The reduction of the FCC field offices caused her to learn a lot about the FCC’s union contract, she said. Harold said she has visited a little more than half of the agency’s field offices.
It’s to companies’ advantage to self-report violations of FCC regulations, Harold said. She believes in reducing forfeitures by more than 10 percent for entities that come forward, though she said companies rarely do so “out of the blue.” Entities self-reporting should make sure to “be accurate and be complete” or risk being perceived to be hiding something, said strike force head Rakesh Pate. Harold said she wants “some reasonable incentive” for entities to come forward on their own. “That said, don’t count on it every single time,” she said.