Federal Communications Commission FCC 16-62
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
Re: Revisions to Public Inspection File Requirements – Broadcaster Correspondence File and Cable 
Principal Headend Location, MB Docket No. 16-161.
The late singer and actress Pearl Bailey once famously said: “What the world really needs is more 
love and less paperwork.”  The FCC can’t do much about the former, but today, it does something about 
the latter.
In particular, this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking raises the question of whether the FCC should 
continue to require commercial broadcast stations to maintain letters and emails from the public in a paper 
inspection file.  In my view, our correspondence file mandate is an unnecessary regulatory burden.  
Indeed, the very words “hardcopy,” “paper,” and “inspection file” are enough to make an increasingly 
digital citizenry yawn.  I therefore support the proposal to eliminate this mandate.
There is little, if any, connection between the requirement and its purported goal of ensuring that 
a station serves its local community.  Without the requirement, viewers and listeners would still be able to 
tell any broadcaster and the FCC what they think about a station’s performance.  Moreover, getting rid of 
this requirement would allow commercial broadcasters to exclusively use an online public file rather than 
maintaining both physical and digital files.
I also support the proposal to eliminate the requirement that cable operators disclose headend 
location information in their public inspection files.  When the Commission was considering cable 
operators’ online file obligations, I appreciated my colleagues’ willingness to refrain from ordering cable 
operators to post the location of their systems’ principal headends on the Internet.  Widely disseminating 
that information, in my view, would have heightened security threats without any corresponding benefit 
to the public.
But cable operators are still required to place headend location information in a paper inspection 
file.  This mandate is entirely unnecessary.  For what was true for digital is true for analog:  There is no 
legitimate need for the public to know the location of a cable system’s principal headend.  Indeed, making 
the location of such critical infrastructure available to the general public could increase the security risks 
facing those facilities.  And, once again, repealing this rule would allow cable operators to transition fully 
to an online public file and stop storing all that paper.
Too often of late, the FCC has imposed unnecessary regulatory burdens that don’t benefit 
consumers.  But here, we are showing more love toward the public interest and proposing to eliminate 
two such burdens.  That’s why I support this Notice and a prompt resolution of this proceeding.