Richard Wiley Moderates Quello Center Panel of Former FCC Commissioners

Wiley Rein Chairman Richard E. Wiley, who also chairs the firm’s Communications Practice, moderated an April 24 Quello Center Communication Policy Forum that focused on issues facing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including net neutrality and media ownership.  The panel discussion was televised on C-SPAN and covered by Communications Daily.

The panel was comprised of former FCC commissioners, including Wiley Rein partner Henry M. Rivera, Rachelle Chong, Michael Copps, Susan Ness, and Deborah Tate.  Mr. Wiley served as chairman, commissioner and general counsel of the FCC from 1970 to 1977.

“My primary preoccupation, if I were back there today, would be to modernize the media ownership rules, which I think are badly outmoded today in the modern communications age—particularly the metamorphosis we’ve seen in the marketplace in the last year—and I think are now counterproductive,” Mr. Wiley said.

Panelists also discussed a rule that prohibits three or more commissioners from meeting together, and they all agreed that increasing dialogue among commissioners could facilitate FCC business.  “When you have staff between you and fellow commissioners, it just takes longer,” Mr. Rivera said.

The Quello Center was named for the late Jim Quello, a former commissioner and interim chairman of the FCC who joined Wiley Rein in 2001 and served as a public policy consultant to its preeminent Communications Practice until his death in 2010.  April 21 would have been Mr. Quello’s 100th birthday.

The C-SPAN video of the Quello Center forum can be viewed here.

For more information, please contact Richard E. Wiley at 202.719.7010 or rwiley@wiley.law or Henry M. Rivera at 202.719.7501 or hrivera@wiley.law.