Related: Privacy-Rule Rollback Letters Flood FCC
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order mandating a comprehensive reorganization of the executive branch, including “eliminating unnecessary agencies” as well as parts of agencies or agency programs.
Independent regulators such as the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission fall under the executive branch, so some of their functions could be in play.
In that executive order, the director of the Office of Management and Budget is charged with considering, in concert with the heads of the relevant agencies, whether some or all of the functions of an agency are better left to state or local governments, or the private sector; which functions are redundant; whether costs are justified by the public benefits; and how much it would cost to shut down or merge agencies, parts of agencies or programs.
B&C has reported that the Trump transition team signed off on a plan in which some FCC functions could be dealt off to the FTC.
That could happen anyway with broadband privacy, should the FCC reclassify Internet service providers as information services.
