House Democrats on Tuesday accused the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission of abusing his power and fostering a climate of fear at the media-regulating agency, creating a “blueprint of what not to do” for the next commission head.
A scathing report released by Rep. Bart Stupak, Michigan Democrat, caps a nearly yearlong investigation into Kevin J. Martin’s leadership of the commission, which has been criticized by Capitol Hill Democrats as opaque and ideological.
Its release - weeks before many expect the Republican to step down so President-elect Barack Obama can name his own chairman - illustrates the prickly relationship that has emerged between the agency chief and Democratic lawmakers.
Mr. Martin’s office rejected the findings, insisting that he follows the same procedures that have been in place for 20 years.
The 110-page report’s main criticism of Mr. Martin centers on the agency’s management of a fund that ensures disabled people have access to special telecommunications services. The Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) fund, which is financed by interstate phone companies that pass on charges of between 7 cents and 20 cents a month to customers, grew by as much as $80 million under Mr. Martin’s leadership,
While rules allow the agency to reimburse service providers for their actual costs along with a return on their investment, Mr. Stupak said the increase in the TRS fund amounts to a “fleecing of the American people.”
But FCC spokesman Rob Kenny pointed out that people who use the services asked that the fund cover not only the cost of TRS services, but the equipment, installation and maintenance costs as well.
“After a year of investigation, the committee’s primary criticism of the chairman is that he spent too much money to ensure that deaf Americans have equal access to communications services,” Mr. Kenny said.
The report, titled “Deception and Distrust: the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin J. Martin,” also accused him of manipulating data and suppressing reports he didn’t agree with, micromanaging the agency’s professional staff and introducing “distrust, suspicion and turmoil” among his colleagues.
Mr. Stupak said he didn’t accuse Mr. Martin of criminal wrongdoing but contended that he violated administrative procedure.
Offices for the agency’s four other commissioners - two Democrats and two Republicans - either did not return calls seeking comment or declined to comment on the report.
While the inquiry began with Republicans on board, and Mr. Stupak said members of the minority committee staff assisted Democrats during the investigation, the report itself was labeled as a majority document. A spokesman for the Republican members of the Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the findings.
“A congressional investigation has established that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t play well with others. The inquiry was supposed to pin down some weightier matters, but evidently that didn’t pan out. So instead we do have this valuable official report on pushiness right here in Washington, D.C., of all places,” said Larry Neal, deputy Republican staff director of the committee.
A former FCC official who left the agency just before Mr. Martin took over, but who is in regular touch with current staff members, said the report puts forth a “pretty fair characterization of the climate of the FCC.”
Mr. Martin’s office said the investigation, begun in January, required 11,620 hours of work from more than 600 FCC employees who provided Mr. Stupak’s committee with more than 9,000 e-mails and 75 boxes of nearly 170,000 pages of documents.
Mr. Stupak said there were still outstanding documents that were requested but never provided, and he said he intends to continue the investigation even if Mr. Martin steps down.
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