STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI Re: Report to Congress Regarding the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications Act (ORBIT Act), IB Docket No. 14-13. Section 646 of the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications Act (ORBIT Act) requires the Commission to update Congress annually on the agency’s progress in implementing the Act, even though that statute’s goal—the privatization of the satellite companies INTELSAT and Inmarsat—has long since been achieved. When we issued the fourteenth report last year, I stated that these reports exemplify why I support efforts in Congress to pass the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act. That legislation would modernize and streamline the FCC’s numerous reporting obligations. For instance, it would repeal outdated reporting requirements like the one we meet today. It would combine other reports, which would enable the Commission to make better use of its limited resources. It would more closely align the Commission’s responsibilities with today’s marketplace. And it would give Congress and the public a one-stop shop for (more) relevant and comprehensive data, facilitating better oversight and more informed policymaking. Since last year’s report, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act of 2013 by a strong bipartisan vote of 415-0. I’m pleased that this fifteenth report acknowledges House passage of the bill and makes clear that these reports are no longer necessary in light of the successful privatization of INTELSAT and Inmarsat many years ago. But it also notes that we will have to keep compiling and submitting them until the laws requiring us to do so are changed. I hope the Senate too will pass the bipartisan Consolidated Reporting Act and that it will be enacted into law. Particularly at a time when the FCC must do more with less, we cannot continue to devote scarce resources to preparing a report hardly anyone—if that—will ever read.