19 March 2001 The Honorable George W. Bush Dear Mr. President: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - United States of America (IEEE-USA) recommends that during your term as President you take advantage of the opportunity to appoint one or more technically trained individuals as Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). There are now Commissioner vacancies at the FCC, and we understand that there could be more, in the coming months. The IEEE-USA urges you to select individuals with strong technical backgrounds and/or strong technical business backgrounds in the areas that are affected by FCC actions. The FCC has a key role in formulating and implementing telecommunications and information technology policies that have key importance to our economic growth. We regret to note that it has been all too rare that Commissioners have had significant technological experience to apply to that role. Clearly, the responsibilities of the Commission require significant knowledge and experience in many different fields, including economics, finance, business, law, and technology, among others. A majority of the decisions made by FCC do have some significant technical aspects. Many decisions depend fundamentally on various aspects of conventional or newly-developing technologies. We further encourage appointment of technically trained staffers to each Commissioner. At one time, all Commissioners were required to have a technically trained person on their staffs. That requirement was eliminated some time ago. Given the rapid and fundamental changes in technology being addressed by the Commission, we recommend that every Commissioner should have a technically trained person on his or her staff, whether by choice or required by law. While the FCC does have engineers on its general staff, such as the Chief Technologist and those in the Office of Engineering and Technology, those staff members do not have nearly as close a working relationship with individual Commissioners as would staffers who report directly to each Commissioner. We recognize that requiring, or even permitting, the addition of a technically trained staffer for each Commissioner may require changes in the rules imposed upon the FCC by Congress, as well as increased funding for the FCC. We encourage you to urge Congress to make rule changes which would permit or require such staffers. We would fully support full funding of such rule changes. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional association with approximately 352,000 members worldwide. IEEE-USA promotes the careers and public policy interests of the nearly 230,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. If you have any questions or would like to explore these suggestions further, please contact Deborah Rudolph, at the IEEE-USA offices in Washington DC at (202) 530-8332. Sincerely, Ned R. Sauthoff, Ph.D. cc: FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell The Honorable W.J.
"Billy" Tauzin The Honorable John McCain The Honorable Conrad Burns The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings The Honorable Cliff Stearns The Honorable Edolphus Towns The Honorable John Linder The Honorable Fred Upton The Honorable Edward J. Markey | Top of Page | Policy Log | Public Policy Forum | IEEE-USA | Last Update: 22 March 2001 Copyright © 2001, The
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