“Circulation items are often lower profile, less controversial, or more technical proposals that don’t draw as much public attention as meeting items. They also tend to be less time sensitive. For these reasons, circulation items may linger on circulation for many months without receiving votes. There are two ways to hasten the resolution of circulation items. First, if an item has three votes in support, it is placed in “must vote” status and the Commissioners who have not yet voted must do so by a set deadline, generally within a couple of weeks. Second, the item may be added to a Commission monthly Open Meeting. That process typically happens three weeks in advance of the meeting (the “white copy date”), but can occur as late as one week before the meeting (the “Sunshine date”).”
Excerpt from this week’s blog posting of FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly who continues his efforts to change the Commission’s (Chairman Wheeler’s) processes. The Commissioner noted in his blog that the current system allows a circulation item to be rewritten, added to the Open Meeting agenda one week prior to the meeting and, because the law and FCC regulations prohibit it, not receive any comment from outside parties.