O F F I C E O F T H E C H A I R M A N F E D E R A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N S C o M M I S S I O N W A S H I N G T O N M a r c h 1 5 , 2 0 1 8 T h e H o n o r a b l e R o b P o r t m a n C h a i r m a n C o m m i t t e e o n H o m e l a n d S e c u r i t y a n d G o v e r n m e n t a l A f f a i r s P e r m a n e n t S u b c o m m i t t e e o n I n v e s t i g a t i o n s U n i t e d S t a t e s S e n a t e 3 4 0 D i r k s e n S e n a t e O f f i c e B u i l d i n g W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . 2 0 5 1 0 D e a r C h a i r m a n P o r t m a n : T h a n k y o u f o r c o n t a c t i n g t h e F e d e r a l C o m m u n i c a t i o n s C o m m i s s i o n a s p a r t o f a r e v i e w b y t h e U . S . S e n a t e C o m m i t t e e o n H o m e l a n d S e c u r i t y a n d G o v e r n m e n t a l A f f a i r s P e r m a n e n t S u b c o m m i t t e e o n I n v e s t i g a t i o n s o f a g e n c i e s ' p r o c e s s e s t o s o l i c i t a n d a c c e p t p u b l i c c o m m e n t s o n p r o p o s e d r u l e m a k i n g s . I h a v e a t t a c h e d r e s p o n s e s t o t h e S u b c o m m i t t e e ' s q u e s t i o n s i c , 2 , 3 , 4 , a n d 5 , a l o n g w i t h t w o r e l a t e d e x h i b i t s . W e a r e s t i l l c o m p i l i n g d a t a i n r e s p o n s e t o q u e s t i o n s l a , i b , a n d I d . W e w i l l s u b m i t a d d i t i o n a l m a t e r i a l s r e s p o n s i v e t o t h o s e q u e s t i o n s a s t h e y b e c o m e a v a i l a b l e . I a p p r e c i a t e y o u r i n t e r e s t i n t h i s m a t t e r . P l e a s e l e t m e k n o w i f I c a n b e o f a n y f u r t h e r a s s i s t a n c e a s t h e S u b c o m m i t t e e c o n d u c t s i t s r e v i e w . Page 2-The Honorable Rob Portman RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS 1. Over the past five calendar years a. How many proposed rules did your agency publish for notice and comment? FCC will provide a supplementary response as this data becomes available. b. How many man-hours or full-time equivalents were required to collect and review comments for those proposed rules? FCC will provide a supplementary response as this data becomes available. c. How much money did your agency provide to support Regulations.gov ? Because the Commission operates and funds its own electronic filing mechanism-the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS)-for the receipt of comments and other records in connection with rulemakings and other FCC proceedings, the FCC did not provide any finding to support Regulations.gov during the relevant time period. d. In each year, which three proposed rules received the highest number of comments? How many comments did each of those proposed rules receive? FCC will provide a supplementary response as this data becomes available. 2. List and describe the means by which your agency solicits and receives comments during the notice-and-comment rulemaking process. The Commission solicits rulemaking comments from the public by issuing notices of proposed rulemaking and publishing proposed rules (and associated documents) in the Federal Register. The Commission receives rulemaking comments from the public via paper or electronic filings, although the majority are submitted electronically. See 47 C.F.R. § 1.49(0(2), 1.419. Electronic filings are received through ECFS. Electronic filings can be made into ECFS using one of two methods: express comments and standard filings. Express comments tend to be shorter submissions made directly into a web form on the FCC comment site. Express comments typically come from individuals since they are the easiest to file and do not include supporting file attachments. Standard filings include supporting file attachments and therefore may be more detailed. These comments are typically filed by industry stakeholders, trade associations, public interest organizations, and law firms representing stakeholders, but also may be filed by individuals. For parties that seek to file a large number of comments, the Commission has also made additional resources available: a public Application Programming Interface (API) and, in some proceedings, an electronic inbox hosted on the public file- sharing system Box.com . All filings submitted through the public API or the Box.com inbox, so long as they were properly formatted and submitted, are entered into ECFS and become part of the official FCC record. Page 3-The Honorable Rob Portman Parties who choose to file by paper must file an original and one copy of each filing. If more than one docket or rulemaking number appears in the caption of this proceeding, paper filers must submit two additional copies for each additional docket or rulemaking number. Paper filings can be sent by hand or messenger delivery, by commercial overnight courier, or by first-class or overnight U.S. Postal Service mail. All paper filings must be addressed to the Commission's Secretary. Once the paper filing is accepted, Commission staff creates a PDF scan of the paper document and places the electronic PDF scan into ECFS. The Commission informs the public of these particular filing methods in two ways. First, each of the Commission's rulemaking documents contains a procedural section with a subsection entitled "Comment Filing Procedures." The Comment Filing Procedures provide instructions to interested parties about how to file their views with the Commission. An example of these instructions is attached as Exhibit A. Second, the Commission's ECFS maintains a user help page that includes instructions for filing a comment about a proceeding. More information about how the Commission receives filings, including a step-by-step tutorial, can be found in the Commission's ECFS 3.0 User Guide, available at this link: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/user-guide/ECFS-3 .0-User-Guide.pdf. 3. For comments filed through Regulations.gov or any other agency electronic filing mechanism, what fields of information are commenters required to provide? What fields are optional? The Commission's rules governing notice-and-comment rulemaking proceedings require that commenters specify' the docket number that the Commission has assigned to the proceeding and the name and address of either the commenter or the commenter's attorney. 47 C.F.R. § 1.419. ECFS serves as the repository for official records in the Commission's docketed proceedings. Listed below are the fields available for commenters to submit standard filings (e.g., comments, reply comments, or other documents that include attachments) or express comments (which do not include attachments) through ECFS. Please note that ECFS has also been designed to allow the public to submit many other types of documents to the Commission, including filings in non-rulemaking proceedings and non- docketed proceedings. Typeof