27 Democrats Sign Letter Calling for FCC EEO Order

Twenty-seven Senate and House Democrats in a letter Friday urged the FCC to reinstate the collection of broadcaster equal employment opportunity data, seconding a Dec. 11 call for urgent action from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. (see 2312110067). Although broadcasters were anticipating an EEO item since a 2021 Further NPRM (see 2306020056) and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said one was in the works during the 2022 NAB Show (see 2204250067), it hasn’t materialized. “In 2021, after nearly 20 years, the FCC took the important step of soliciting comment on how to recommence this important data collection using Form 395-B,” said the lawmakers' letter. “It is now time for the Commission to follow through.”

Signatories to Friday’s letter included Clarke, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragan (Calif.), Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (Nev.), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.). “We urge you to act swiftly to put Form 395-B back into use,” said the letter. The FCC’s data collection using the form was suspended in 2001 after two court cases raised constitutional concerns. The FNPRM reviving collection then stalled in 2004. On the previous FCC in 2019, Starks and Rosenworcel raised bringing back the data collection, and in 2021 the then four-person commission unanimously approved the FNPRM. Rosenworcel said then the agency shouldn’t have stalled: “After so much time, this pause turned into a standstill.” Starks last week said it's “past time for us to resume our responsibility.” He, Van Hollen and Clarke made similar calls for action in 2019 (see 1906110075).

The FCC’s lack of a Democratic majority for most of Rosenworcel’s tenure is widely seen as a major reason for the delay. Public interest groups have called on the agency to create publicly searchable databases with data attributable to individual broadcasters, while NAB and broadcast interests have said data collection is unnecessary and should be anonymized if it's collected. The Republican FCC commissioners are seen as likely to oppose a public database. Commissioner Nathan Simington told us in an October interview (see 2310130068) that he's not ”categorically opposed” to an EEO item but would object “if the purpose is to empower the plaintiff’s bar.” He also said he didn't “think there's anything in the world that requires us to have a public database either.” September's seating of Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat and vocal supporter of diversity initiatives, likely means an EEO item could now overcome Republican opposition (see 2312120079).

“We can’t speculate on why the agency has delayed so long,” emailed David Honig, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council senior adviser. “That’s 10th-floor politics.” In comments posted in EEO docket 98-204 in August 2022, MMTC, Common Cause, the National Urban League and others said the order needed to be issued in the next six months to produce usable data by mid-2024. It wasn't. “Twenty years of kicking the can down the road should be regarded by all parties as far too long for any significant FCC proceeding,” Honig said Friday. “Such a long wait is explainable, but not excusable. A generation has grown to adulthood without meaningful electronic media EEO oversight.” The FCC and NAB didn’t comment.

“Representation matters,” the lawmakers wrote in Friday’s letter. A broadcast station “is best placed” to be responsive to its community of license when its employees reflect the diversity of that community, they added. “The collection of broadcast workforce diversity data is critical for transparency and accountability in the industry,” said Horsford in a news release. “This data is an imperative tool to ensure the media ecosystem continues to diversity in a way that reflects the American people.