STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL O’RIELLY
Re: Establishing of the Office of Economics and Analytics, MD Docket No. 18-3. 
I am exceptionally pleased to support today’s item, which adopts a key process reform idea I have 
long advocated: creating an office within the agency focused on economics and analytics.  Since receiving 
the Chairman’s draft item, I have worked with two goals in mind.  First, guaranteeing that this office has 
enough weight and authority to ensure that it is successful from the outset.  Second, ingraining it into the 
agency procedures to ensure that it outlasts the current Commission and remains effective for years to 
come.  
In 2011, President Obama issued an Executive Order requiring all executive agencies to conduct 
a cost-benefit analysis before proposing or adopting regulations.  But, the FCC, as an independent agency, 
was excluded from this mandate and promises made by a long-gone chairman to abide by the directive 
never materialized.  Unfortunately, the practical implication of this failure was a litany of shoddy 
decisions devoid of economic analysis adopted under previous Commissions.  For this reason, Chairman 
Pai proposed the creation of a new Office of Economics and Analytics (“OEA” or “Office”) to better 
align our work with concrete data and facts.  
When the draft item was circulated, I made several proposals, which Chairman Pai graciously 
accepted, to add additional responsibilities for the new Office.  Paramount to my changes is requiring 
OEA to prepare and review a rigorous, economically-grounded cost-benefit analysis for all rulemakings 
deemed to have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.       
But, ensuring that a cost-benefit analysis is conducted is only a partial victory.  We must also 
ensure that such an analysis is credible and accurate.  To achieve this, I advocated requiring OEA to 
follow the guidelines of OMB Circular A-4, which standardizes the way benefits and costs are measured 
and reported across executive agencies.  However, due to the Commission resources this may involve, I 
understand that it may be more prudent to get the Office established before taking this important step.  To 
that end, I look forward to continuing to work with the Chairman’s office and Commission staff to get the 
Office up and running and well positioned for us to incorporate Circular A-4 into our rules down the road.   
Another edit I proposed and the Chairman accepted was to add a requirement that, like the Office 
of General Counsel, OEA must confirm that it has reviewed each Commission rulemaking to ensure it is 
complete before it is released to the public.  Doing so will ensure that its work is not ignored or 
sidestepped on the way to Commission consideration.  As a practical effect, this can be accomplished 
through the Commission’s eBARF signature process.   
Together, these reforms will give the new Office greater involvement in the drafting, editing, and 
finalizing of the Commission’s rules.  OEA will play a role on the front end in the original drafting of all 
cost-benefit analysis and play a role on the back end by signing off on each item.  I believe that this 
heightened level of participation will help ensure that OEA gets quickly integrated into the Commission’s 
processes and that future Chairmen less interested in economics and analytics will be unable to turn a 
blind eye to the real burdens that many of our rules impose.  
I am also confident that OEA will not create additional bureaucracy within the agency.  When 
this item was originally circulated it was unclear to me what the budgetary impacts of such an office 
would be.  In speaking with the Chairman’s team, I have been assured that the FCC will not increase its 
FY19 budget request as a result of establishing this Office, and that new hires made pursuant to this 
Office, if any, will be offset by departures in other places. This will ensure that OEA will utilize our 
current resources at the Commission, rather than generate an enlarged Commission.   
Overall, today is an important day.  We are establishing an office that has the potential to take this 
Commission in a more solid and defensible direction.  I support this item and applaud the Chairman and 
Commission staff for all the good work that went into both the final rules and the report.