FCC Votes to Move EEO Enforcement

The FCC has voted to move oversight of its Equal Employment Opportunity rules from the Media Bureau to the Enforcement Bureau.

FCC chair Ajit Pai proposed the change July 3, which he billed as the 50th anniversary of the FCC's commitment to make sure the national policy against discrimination applied to broadcast licenses as well.

Related: Pai Proposes Moving EEO Enforcement to Enforcement Bureau

It also came a day before Pai and other commissioners are scheduled to address the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council's annual Washington conference, where he will likely get some love since it was an MMTC-led coalition that proposed the change last April.

The EEO enforcement team of attorneys and others conducts periodic random audits of broadcasters and MVPDs, along with any issues arising from those.

"By deploying staff tasked with enforcing the commission’s EEO rules in the Enforcement Bureau, we’ll be able to improve the FCC’s enforcement of those rules and strengthen our commitment to fighting discrimination," Pai said at the time.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.