Federal Communications Commission FCC 13-23
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
Re: United States Telecom Association Petition for Forbearance Under 47 U.S.C. §160(c) from 
Enforcement of Certain Legacy Telecommunications Regulations, WC Docket No. 12-61
  
For years I have pushed the Commission to review its rules and weed out those that are 
unnecessary and outdated.  Therefore, I am pleased to support this order which grants forbearance from 
the application of some extremely outdated and unnecessary rules – one actually dating back to the era of 
the telegraph.  
While I had hoped that this order would have been more far-reaching, I am eager to continue 
working with my colleagues in a deregulatory manner as we consider the remainder of the requests set 
forth in USTelecom’s forbearance petition.  Moreover, the Commission should take a more aggressive 
approach to repeal unnecessary and outdated regulations.  Not only is clearing out unnecessary regulatory 
underbrush good public policy that ultimately helps grow the economy and empower consumers, but 
eliminating outdated rules is mandated by Congress as well.  The FCC has an ample supply of legal tools 
to modernize its rules on its own motion.
1
  We don’t need to wait for private parties to incur the expense 
and risk of filing forbearance petitions.  For instance, as I have stated many times before, our biennial 
review process could be much more energetic and ambitious.  Such is Congress’s expectation of us.
I look forward to continuing to work with Congress and my colleagues on encouraging the 
Commission to streamline its rulebook.
                                                     
1
For example, Sections 10, 11, 202(h) and 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 each have a deregulatory 
bent.