The FCC has come under fire for rulemaking policies and practices by everyone from lawmakers to its minority-party commissioners, though its openness and transparency -- especially in comparison with some other regulatory agencies -- could be worse, said several commission watchers and regulatory agency experts. Considering the amount of rulemaking the FCC engages in, "it works pretty well," Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood told us.

This Communications Daily Special Report "a Portrait of the FCC in a Partisan Era" shows the impact of recently flat FCC budgets and a long-shrinking overall staff, as well as partisanship, on agency operations and more. Subscribers also can now access these six stories online at www.communicationsdaily.com.

The FCC held some dozen events for news media that weren't on the record in the first half of this year, more than any other communications-related federal body. Such commission media events, often "on background" where officials couldn't be identified, numbered twice as many as were fully on the record. Partisan politics (see 1510280062 and 1512150011) and a divided FCC (see 1512150030) appear to be making commission officials more cautious in what they say when their names are attached, said experts who reviewed a Communications Daily database. They said such politics partly reflect a politically divided Washington. That's apparent to a lesser degree at NTIA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The FCC has had some success in reducing processing backlogs even as its head count has continued to decline, according to the most recent available agency data. As of year-end 2014, the total number of items pending at the commission for more than six months dropped by more than 37 percent since May 1, 2014, said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a Jan. 21 letter to two key lawmakers. Over that period, the volume of license-related items pending more than six months dropped by 33 percent and the number of applications for review and petitions for reconsideration pending more than six months dropped by more than 12 percent, he said. An FCC spokesman had no comment on the overall performance, but pointed us to some public documents with agency information.

The partisan divide on net neutrality complicates congressional funding of the FCC and has made the annual task of appropriating much harder over the past several years, veteran appropriators of both parties on Capitol Hill told us in recent conversations. The appropriations process for the agency is now intensely political, they said, citing the very different perceptions among Republicans and Democrats of the agency and its missions.

There have been many more party-line 3-2 votes at FCC meetings under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler than under former Chairmen Kevin Martin and Julius Genachowski, a comparison of such votes shows. Using records on the FCC's website and in the Electronic Comment Filing System, Communications Daily tallied votes at FCC meetings in 2008, 2012 and 2014. It found that in 2014, the Wheeler-led commission approved items at FCC open meetings with a party-line vote 11 times, compared with two such votes under Martin in 2008 and just one under Genachowski in 2012.

Concerns remain about FCC Enforcement Bureau field office closings, fives months after the agency approved a compromise proposal that avoided some of the closings initially proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler, who said in July that after five years of flat budgets the agency had little choice.

The FCC Wireline Bureau received generally good marks on its productivity from communications industry representatives we interviewed for this Communications Daily Special Report, even amid gradually declining budgets and staff sizes at the agency overall (see 1512150011). The bureau is seen by most as working hard to generate a large number of regulatory actions on a wide array of complex and contentious issues, with progress in addressing some backlogs. “I can’t think of any specific areas where the Wireline Competition Bureau is lagging,” said Micah Caldwell, ITTA vice president-regulatory affairs. Caldwell was the only person interviewed for this article willing to be cited by name; the rest either requested anonymity or declined to comment altogether on the bureau’s output and performance.

Industry consolidation has been underway for decades and its challenges for the communications bar are nothing new, communications industry lawyers said. Law firms face steady pressure to keep the rates they charge low and, as companies expand, many take routine matters "in-house," the attorneys said. But the attorneys also said technological evolution, including the explosion of wireless, has meant new areas of practice and new clients seeking representation.

Industry consolidation has been a dominant factor overhanging how the wireless industry is regulated, especially on transactions policy. The FCC under President Barack Obama's appointees repeatedly has drawn a clear line at four national wireless carriers -- AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. Industry observers disagree whether that makes sense in the current market.