A Conservative Perspective on Communications Policy

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) maintains exclusive or shared regulatory responsibility for a wide range of issues including privacy, cyber-security, media broadband deployment, and network neutrality. Some of these issues, like network neutrality, have generated millions of comments to the FCC and are currently among the most controversial topics in public policy.

More broadly, lawmakers and policymakers remain deeply divided over the extent of the FCC's legal authority. Whether the FCC should allow markets to operate freely or intervene where markets are perceived to be performing poorly is itself one of today's most hotly contested policy questions.

On February 6th, Hudson hosted a discussion to address the conservative perspective on the FCC and U.S. communications policy. The panel consisted of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who has been a consistent voice of conservative principles in U.S. communications policy, and Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Director of Hudson’s Center for the Economics of the Internet.