STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR
Re: Amendment of Parts 74, 76 and 78 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Maintenance of 
Copies of FCC Rules, MB Docket No. 17-231; Modernization of Media Regulation 
Initiative, MB Docket No. 17-105
Earlier this month, when I cast my first vote as a Commissioner, I noted that the telecom
section of the Code of Federal Regulations now spans five volumes and more than 4,000 pages.  
In too many cases, the rules codified in that set have long outlived their usefulness.  In fact, as 
today’s Notice shows, we actually have rules on the books whose only purpose is to make sure 
that our licensees keep those books on their shelves.  These requirements were adopted in the 
1970s, a decade that gave us advances like the floppy disk, the VCR, and the Walkman, and an 
era long before virtually everything—including FCC regulations—became available online.  As 
times change, our rules should change with them.  So I am glad that the Notice proposes to 
eliminate these obsolete regulations.  And more importantly, I support the larger effort that we are 
undertaking to modernize our media regulations and remove or streamline those rules that hinder 
competition, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  I look forward to working with my colleagues in 
that broader effort.