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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  04-  13 
 DISSENTING  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  KEVIN  J.  MARTIN 


 Two  years  ago,  I  expressed  concern  regarding  the  Commission’s  process  and  decision  to  terminate  summarily  over  100  docketed  proceedings.  1  In  that  decision,  the  Commission 
 dismissed  numerous  pending  items  that  had  “allegedly”  become  moot  solely  due  to  its  own  failure  to  act.  In  particular,  I  was  concerned  with  a  process  that  dismissed  numerous  petitions 
 with  no  official  notice  to  the  parties  involved. 
 Today’s  action  revives  one  of  those  proceedings--  a  1995  tariff  investigation  regarding  the  accounting  treatment,  under  price  cap  regulation,  of  “other  post-  retirement  employee 
 benefits,”  (“  OPEBs”)—  that  was  terminated  in  2001.  I  continue  to  have  serious  concerns  with  the  process  in  these  proceedings.  This  action  reinstitutes  a  nearly  decade  old  investigation,  after  the 
 Commission  terminated  the  proceeding  over  two  years  ago.  I  am  concerned  by  the  process  that  allows  this  termination  to  be  reversed  by  a  bureau-  level  errata  more  than  thirteen  months  after  the 
 tariff  investigation  had  been  terminated. 


 1  Joint  Statement  of  Michael  J.  Copps  and  Kevin  J.  Martin,  Federal-  State  Joint  Board  on  Universal 
 Service:  Implementation  of  the  Local  Competition  Provisions  of  the  Telecommunications  Act  of  1996,  Order  on  Reconsideration,  CC  Docket  Nos.  96-  45  &  96-  98  (rel.  January  29,  2002). 
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