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Dlnslfington, ilC!! 20515 
The Honorable Ajit Pai 
Chairman 
Federal Communications Commission 
445 12'h Street, S.W. 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai: 
February 22, 2017 
We write to encourage you to take the next steps to increase transparency and accessibility for 
the online political file information currently required by Commission rules. We have long 
supported the public's right to know who is paying for the advertisements - such as issues ads ­
that are pervasive during elections. Additionally, the public should be able to easily access this 
online information in machine-readable format. 
The Media Bureau took initial steps toward the first goal last month when it resolved long­
pending complaints against various TV stations regarding the disclosure of required information 
in the station' s political files. We believe that the clarifications released by the Bureau will not 
only help broadcasters better understand their responsibilities, but will also provide the public 
with essential information. We were disappointed by your recent decision to set aside the 
decisions of the Media Bureau, however, we support your call for the full Commission to vote on 
these clarifications in the near term in order to remove any process concerns. 
We also believe that now is the time to move forward on the other issues related to the political 
file in order for true transparency. We believe that the Commission currently has the authority 
under the Communications Act to require the disclosure of the specific donors to entities or 
groups that sponsor issue advertisements. Under current practice, stations are only required to 
provide a list of the chief executive officers or board of directors for any entity that sponsors an 
issue ad on the station. Although the Bureau's recent clarifications provide for additional 
responsibility for stations to seek additional information if not initially provided, a list of officers 
for an entity does not provide the full picture of who is funding that advertising that is intended 
to influence the public. This should not be a partisan matter, and we would like to work with you 
on this issue. 
The Commission also can increase the accessibility of the information that is included in the 
online political file by requiring that all ofthe data is machine-readable. Currently, the public 
can only really access information by searching through each station's individual file. Machine­
readability is essential to be able to easily aggregate the data. Again, we look forward to working 
with you to make this a reality for the online political and public files for all broadcast stations. 
Sincerely, 
PAINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER 
en Ray Lujan 
Member of Congress 
~2:&~ 
Member of Congress 
a Schakowsky 
ember of Congress 
(j}~~k 
Diana DeGette 
Member of Congress 
Michael F. Doyle 
Member of Congress 
Peter Welch 
Member of Congress 
John P. Sarbanes 
Member of Congress 
Gene Green 
Member of Congress