Congressional Research Service Reports - 262 Matching Results

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The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape

Description: The report discusses the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-Related Congressional Actions in the 112th Congress. The policymakers, including some in Congress, have long called for varying degrees and types of reform to the FCC. Most proposals fall into two categories: (1) procedural changes made within the FCC or through congressional action that would affect the agency's operations or (2) substantive policy changes requiring congressional action that would affect how the agency regulates … more
Date: April 11, 2008
Creator: Moloney Figliola, Patricia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Phantom Traffic" -- Problems Billing for the Termination of Telephone Calls: Issues for Congress

Description: This report provides an overview of "phantom traffic" -- i.e., telephone calls for which a carrier is unable to obtain appropriate compensation. The report discusses the causes of phantom traffic, phantom traffic and rural companies, issues, and related proposals.
Date: June 27, 2008
Creator: Goldfarb, Charles B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape

Description: The report discusses the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-Related Congressional Actions in the 112th Congress. The policymakers, including some in Congress, have long called for varying degrees and types of reform to the FCC.
Date: May 13, 2008
Creator: Moloney Figliola, Patricia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Telecommunications Act: Competition, Innovation, and Reform

Description: In 1996, Congress enacted comprehensive reform of the nation’s statutory and regulatory framework for telecommunications by passing the Telecommunications Act, which substantially amended the 1934 Communications Act. The general objective of the 1996 Act was to open up markets to competition by removing unnecessary regulatory barriers to entry. This report discusses the history of the law and examines current issues.
Date: June 7, 2007
Creator: Goldfarb, Charles B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Public Safety Communications and Spectrum Resources: Policy Issues for Congress

Description: This report discusses pieces of legislation passed by Congress that are intended to help surmount failures in public safety radio communications such as (1) insufficient interoperability among radio systems, a problem that hampered rescue efforts on and after September 11; and (2) insufficiently robust networks, a shortcoming revealed after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.
Date: November 10, 2009
Creator: Moore, Linda K.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Public Safety Communications and Spectrum Resources: Policy Issues for Congress

Description: This report discusses pieces of legislation passed by Congress that are intended to help surmount failures in public safety radio communications such as insufficient interoperability among radio systems, a problem that hampered rescue efforts on and after September 11; and insufficiently robust networks, a shortcoming revealed after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.
Date: October 14, 2009
Creator: Moore, Linda K.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Bundling Residential Telephone, Internet, and Video Services: Issues for Congress

Description: This report discusses bundling and public policy issues for Congress. The federal Universal Service Fund - the federal subsidy program that assures affordable telephone rates for high-cost (rural) and low-income telephone customers as well as for schools, libraries, and rural health facilities - is supported by an assessment on interstate telecommunications revenues only. But it is difficult to identify the portion of revenues generated by a bundled service offering attributable to the intersta… more
Date: February 17, 2004
Creator: Goldfarb, Charles B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Siting of Wireless Communications Facilities: An Overview of Federal, State, and Local Law

Description: The siting of wireless communications facilities has been a topic of controversy in communities all over the United States. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 governs federal, state, and local regulation of the siting of communications towers by placing certain limitations on local zoning authority without totally preempting state and local law. This report provides an overview of the federal, state, and local laws governing the siting of wireless communications facilities.
Date: September 4, 2008
Creator: Ruane, Kathleen
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Cable and Satellite Television Network Tiering and a la Carte Options for Consumers: Issues for Congress

Description: The large cable programmers, who provide most of the popular cable (and broadcast) television programming, respond that a single large expanded basic service tier represents the most efficient way to offer programming and that allowing customers to obtain networks on an a la carte basis or in small tiers would raise costs – and hence prices to consumers – and also reduce the diversity of programs offered, so that consumer welfare would suffer in the long run. In this report, the pros and cons o… more
Date: June 9, 2004
Creator: Goldfarb, Charles B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Spectrum Policy: Public Safety and Wireless Communications Interference

Description: This report discusses the rebanding plan announced by the Federal Communications Commission in 2004 to consolidate public safety frequencies and those used by some other operators, such as utilities. The plan was announced in an attempt to eliminate interference caused by the close proximity and interleaving of commercial and public safety channels.
Date: September 22, 2009
Creator: Moore, Linda K.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape

Description: The report discusses the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-Related Congressional Actions in the 112th Congress. The policymakers, including some in Congress, have long called for varying degrees and types of reform to the FCC. Most proposals fall into two categories: (1) procedural changes made within the FCC or through congressional action that would affect the agency's operations or (2) substantive policy changes requiring congressional action that would affect how the agency regulates … more
Date: March 15, 2007
Creator: Moloney Figliola, Patricia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Fairness Doctorine: History and Constitutional Issues

Description: The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) that required broadcast licensees to cover issues of public importance and to do so in a fair manner. In 1987, after a period of study, the FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine. The debate in Congress regarding whether to reinstate the doctrine continues today. This report covers the history of such debates.
Date: January 12, 2009
Creator: Ruane, Kathleen Ann
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Telework for Executive Agency Employees: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Legislation Pending in the 111th Congress

Description: S. 1000, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2007, and H.R. 4106, the Telework Improvements Act of 2008, are currently pending in the 110th Congress. Under the pending legislation and Senate amendments, the heads of executive branch agencies would be required to establish policies under which employees (with some exceptions) could be eligible to participate in telework. This report presents a side-by-side comparison of the provisions of S. 1000, as reported; H.R. 4106, as passed by the House.
Date: October 20, 2008
Creator: Schwemle, Barbara L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Telework for Executive Agency Employees: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Legislation Pending in the 111th Congress

Description: S. 1000, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2007, and H.R. 4106, the Telework Improvements Act of 2008, are currently pending in the 110th Congress. Under the pending legislation and Senate amendments, the heads of executive branch agencies would be required to establish policies under which employees (with some exceptions) could be eligible to participate in telework. This report presents a side-by-side comparison of the provisions of S. 1000, as reported; H.R. 4106, as passed by the House.
Date: June 11, 2008
Creator: Schwemle, Barbara L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Communications Act Revisions: Selected Issues for Consideration

Description: This report provides an overview of selected topics which the 109th Congress may address in its examination of telecommunications issues. The issues included in this report cover: broadband Internet regulation and access; broadcast indecency; digital television transition; Federal Communications Commission structure and reform; intercarrier compensation; media ownership rules; municipal deployment of broadband; public safety communications, the “savings clause” and monopoly issues; spectrum auc… more
Date: September 19, 2005
Creator: Gilroy, Angele A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Communications Act Revisions: Selected Issues for Consideration

Description: This report provides an overview of selected topics which the 109th Congress may address in its examination of telecommunications issues. The issues included in this report cover: broadband Internet regulation and access; broadcast indecency; digital television transition; Federal Communications Commission structure and reform; intercarrier compensation; media ownership rules; municipal deployment of broadband; public safety communications, the “savings clause” and monopoly issues; spectrum auc… more
Date: January 23, 2006
Creator: Gilroy, Angele A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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FCC Media Ownership Rules: Current Status and Issues for Congress

Description: The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) adopted an order on June 2, 2003 that modified five of its media ownership rules and retained two others. The new rules have never gone into effect. Congress passed the FY2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-199), Sec. 629 of which instructs the FCC to modify one of the rules — the National Television Ownership rule. This report examines these rules and relevant policy issues.
Date: August 23, 2004
Creator: Goldfarb, Charles B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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