PITTSBURGH, April 5, 2017 – American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka issued the following statement regarding Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s Hudson Institute speech today establishing a process to create an Office of Economics and Data to bring a more rigorous cost-benefit analysis to regulations proposed for the communications industry:
“The American Cable Association salutes FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for starting the process of restructuring the agency to better evaluate whether the benefits of proposed regulations outweigh their costs. Ensuring that robust economic analysis and sound cost-benefit calculations underlie all FCC actions is critically important to ACA’s members. They are too often forced to divert their limited resources from planned investment in broadband to account for new regulatory and paperwork burdens.
“ACA, which has long relied upon economic studies and data to justify its calls for relief for its small members, has long been frustrated with the lack of seriousness with which the FCC takes its duty to conduct a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis to consider the impact of its rules on small entities. ACA appreciates that Chairman Pai acknowledged this problem in his speech.
“We look forward to working with the working group of FCC economists charged with implementing Chairman Pai’s plan.”
About the American Cable Association: Based in Pittsburgh, the American Cable Association is a trade organization representing nearly 750 smaller and medium-sized, independent cable companies who provide broadband services for nearly 7 million cable subscribers primarily located in rural and smaller suburban markets across America. Through active participation in the regulatory and legislative process in Washington, D.C., ACA’s members work together to advance the interests of their customers and ensure the future competitiveness and viability of their business. For more information, visithttps://acaconnects.org/