Don’t hold your breath for FCC release of reciprocal compensation...

Don’t hold your breath for FCC release of reciprocal compensation order because there’s nothing circulating right now, Comr. Furchtgott-Roth told reporters Thurs. at his monthly breakfast meeting. He said “outside parties” usually knew more than he did but this was exception: “I've never seen an item where the outside is more out of touch than reciprocal compensation. There isn’t an item being circulated. It was pulled back ages ago. It ain’t happening this week.” Furchtgott- Roth also said he was “cautiously optimistic” that “change in Administration will lead to improvements at the Commission,” such as toning down FCC’s merger review role. FCC chairman is “very powerful position relative to other agencies” because of its “CEO function,” Furchtgott-Roth said. In that role, chairman can “initiate new programs or stop discretionary programs.” Merger review is one of those discretionary programs because FCC doesn’t have statutory requirement to review mergers, other than acting on license transfers, he said. He said he didn’t anticipate deadlocks if agency ended up with 4 commissioners, split 2-2 on party lines. FCC rarely divides on party lines to begin with, he said. “A lot is made about partisan divisions but I don’t see it.” He again criticized FCC for “collusion with the FTC” because staff of 2 agencies worked together on some aspects of review of AOL takeover of Time Warner. Each agency has its own mandate in reviewing such transfers and it’s “very improper” to coordinate those reviews, he said.