
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 23, 2000 and December 4, 2001]
[CITE: 47USC155]

 
          TITLE 47--TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS
 
                 CHAPTER 5--WIRE OR RADIO COMMUNICATION
 
                    SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
 
Sec. 155. Commission


(a) Chairman; duties; vacancy

    The member of the Commission designated by the President as chairman 
shall be the chief executive officer of the Commission. It shall be his 
duty to preside at all meetings and sessions of the Commission, to 
represent the Commission in all matters relating to legislation and 
legislative reports, except that any commissioner may present his own or 
minority views or supplemental reports, to represent the Commission in 
all matters requiring conferences or communications with other 
governmental officers, departments or agencies, and generally to 
coordinate and organize the work of the Commission in such manner as to 
promote prompt and efficient disposition of all matters within the 
jurisdiction of the Commission. In the case of a vacancy in the office 
of the chairman of the Commission, or the absence or inability of the 
chairman to serve, the Commission may temporarily designate one of its 
members to act as chairman until the cause or circumstance requiring 
such designation shall have been eliminated or corrected.

(b) Organization of staff

    From time to time as the Commission may find necessary, the 
Commission shall organize its staff into (1) integrated bureaus, to 
function on the basis of the Commission's principal workload operations, 
and (2) such other divisional organizations as the Commission may deem 
necessary. Each such integrated bureau shall include such legal, 
engineering, accounting, administrative, clerical, and other personnel 
as the Commission may determine to be necessary to perform its 
functions.

(c) Delegation of functions; exceptions to initial orders; force, effect 
        and enforcement of orders; administrative and judicial review; 
        qualifications and compensation of delegates; assignment of 
        cases; separation of review and investigative or prosecuting 
        functions; secretary; seal

    (1) When necessary to the proper functioning of the Commission and 
the prompt and orderly conduct of its business, the Commission may, by 
published rule or by order, delegate any of its functions (except 
functions granted to the Commission by this paragraph and by paragraphs 
(4), (5), and (6) of this subsection and except any action referred to 
in sections 204(a)(2), 208(b), and 405(b) of this title) to a panel of 
commissioners, an individual commissioner, an employee board, or an 
individual employee, including functions with respect to hearing, 
determining, ordering, certifying, reporting, or otherwise acting as to 
any work, business, or matter; except that in delegating review 
functions to employees in cases of adjudication (as defined in section 
551 of title 5), the delegation in any such case may be made only to an 
employee board consisting of two or more employees referred to in 
paragraph (8) of this subsection. Any such rule or order may be adopted, 
amended, or rescinded only by a vote of a majority of the members of the 
Commission then holding office. Except for cases involving the 
authorization of service in the instructional television fixed service, 
or as otherwise provided in this chapter, nothing in this paragraph 
shall authorize the Commission to provide for the conduct, by any person 
or persons other than persons referred to in paragraph (2) or (3) of 
section 556(b) of title 5, of any hearing to which such section applies.
    (2) As used in this subsection the term ``order, decision, report, 
or action'' does not include an initial, tentative, or recommended 
decision to which exceptions may be filed as provided in section 409(b) 
of this title.
    (3) Any order, decision, report, or action made or taken pursuant to 
any such delegation, unless reviewed as provided in paragraph (4) of 
this subsection, shall have the same force and effect, and shall be 
made, evidenced, and enforced in the same manner, as orders, decisions, 
reports, or other actions of the Commission.
    (4) Any person aggrieved by any such order, decision, report or 
action may file an application for review by the Commission within such 
time and in such manner as the Commission shall prescribe, and every 
such application shall be passed upon by the Commission. The Commission, 
on its own initiative, may review in whole or in part, at such time and 
in such manner as it shall determine, any order, decision, report, or 
action made or taken pursuant to any delegation under paragraph (1) of 
this subsection.
    (5) In passing upon applications for review, the Commission may 
grant, in whole or in part, or deny such applications without specifying 
any reasons therefor. No such application for review shall rely on 
questions of fact or law upon which the panel of commissioners, 
individual commissioner, employee board, or individual employee has been 
afforded no opportunity to pass.
    (6) If the Commission grants the application for review, it may 
affirm, modify, or set aside the order, decision, report, or action, or 
it may order a rehearing upon such order, decision, report, or action in 
accordance with section 405 of this title.
    (7) The filing of an application for review under this subsection 
shall be a condition precedent to judicial review of any order, 
decision, report, or action made or taken pursuant to a delegation under 
paragraph (1) of this subsection. The time within which a petition for 
review must be filed in a proceeding to which section 402(a) of this 
title applies, or within which an appeal must be taken under section 
402(b) of this title, shall be computed from the date upon which public 
notice is given of orders disposing of all applications for review filed 
in any case.
    (8) The employees to whom the Commission may delegate review 
functions in any case of adjudication (as defined in section 551 of 
title 5) shall be qualified, by reason of their training, experience, 
and competence, to perform such review functions, and shall perform no 
duties inconsistent with such review functions. Such employees shall be 
in a grade classification or salary level commensurate with their 
important duties, and in no event less than the grade classification or 
salary level of the employee or employees whose actions are to be 
reviewed. In the performance of such review functions such employees 
shall be assigned to cases in rotation so far as practicable and shall 
not be responsible to or subject to the supervision or direction of any 
officer, employee, or agent engaged in the performance of investigative 
or prosecuting functions for any agency.
    (9) The secretary and seal of the Commission shall be the secretary 
and seal of each panel of the Commission, each individual commissioner, 
and each employee board or individual employee exercising functions 
delegated pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection.

(d) Meetings

    Meetings of the Commission shall be held at regular intervals, not 
less frequently than once each calendar month, at which times the 
functioning of the Commission and the handling of its work load shall be 
reviewed and such orders shall be entered and other action taken as may 
be necessary or appropriate to expedite the prompt and orderly conduct 
of the business of the Commission with the objective of rendering a 
final decision (1) within three months from the date of filing in all 
original application, renewal, and transfer cases in which it will not 
be necessary to hold a hearing, and (2) within six months from the final 
date of the hearing in all hearing cases.

(e) Managing Director; appointment, functions, pay

    The Commission shall have a Managing Director who shall be appointed 
by the Chairman subject to the approval of the Commission. The Managing 
Director, under the supervision and direction of the Chairman, shall 
perform such administrative and executive functions as the Chairman 
shall delegate. The Managing Director shall be paid at a rate equal to 
the rate then payable for level V of the Executive Schedule.

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title I, Sec. 5, 48 Stat. 1068; July 16, 1952, 
ch. 879, Sec. 4, 66 Stat. 712; Pub. L. 87-192, Secs. 1, 2, Aug. 31, 
1961, 75 Stat. 420; Pub. L. 96-470, title I, Sec. 116, Oct. 19, 1980, 94 
Stat. 2240; Pub. L. 97-35, title XII, Sec. 1252, Aug. 13, 1981, 95 Stat. 
738; Pub. L. 97-259, title I, Sec. 105, Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1091; 
Pub. L. 99-272, title V, Sec. 5002(c), Apr. 7, 1986, 100 Stat. 118; Pub. 
L. 100-594, Secs. 4, 8(a), Nov. 3, 1988, 102 Stat. 3021, 3023; Pub. L. 
103-414, title III, Sec. 303(a)(2), Oct. 25, 1994, 108 Stat. 4294; Pub. 
L. 104-104, title IV, Sec. 403(c), Feb. 8, 1996, 110 Stat. 130.)

                       References in Text

    Level V of the Executive Schedule, referred to in subsec. (e), is 
set out in section 5316 of Title 5, Government Organization and 
Employees.

                          Codification

    In subsec. (c)(1), (8), ``adjudication (as defined in section 551 of 
title 5)'' substituted for ``adjudication (as defined in the 
Administrative Procedure Act)'', and in subsec. (c)(1) ``section 556(b) 
of title 5'' substituted for references to ``section 7(a) of the 
Administrative Procedure Act'', on authority of Pub. L. 89-554, 
Sec. 7(b), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 631, the first section of which 
enacted Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.


                               Amendments

    1996--Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 104-104 inserted last sentence and 
struck out former last sentence which read as follows: ``Nothing in this 
paragraph shall authorize the Commission to provide for the conduct, by 
any person or persons other than persons referred to in clauses (2) and 
(3) of section 556(b) of title 5, of any hearing to which such section 
556(b) applies.''
    1994--Subsecs. (e), (f). Pub. L. 103-414 redesignated subsec. (f) as 
(e).
    1988--Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 100-594, Sec. 8(a), inserted ``and 
except any action referred to in sections 204(a)(2), 208(b), and 405(b) 
of this title'' after ``and (6) of this subsection'' in first sentence.
    Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 100-594, Sec. 4, struck out subsec. (g) which 
required an annual report to Congress and specified its contents.
    1986--Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 99-272 substituted ``March 31'' for 
``January 31''.
    1982--Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 97-259, Sec. 105(a), substituted ``From'' 
for ``Within six months after July 16, 1952, and from'' at beginning of 
subsection, and struck out ``thereafter'' after ``time to time''.
    Subsecs. (c) to (e). Pub. L. 97-259, Sec. 105(b), (c), redesignated 
subsecs. (d) and (e) as (c) and (d), respectively, and in par. (1) of 
subsec. (c), as so redesignated, substituted ``two'' for ``three'' after 
``employee board consisting of''.
    1981--Subsecs. (f), (g). Pub. L. 97-35 added subsecs. (f) and (g).
    1980--Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 96-470 struck out ``; and the Commission 
shall promptly report to the Congress each such case which has been 
pending before it more than such three- or six-month period, 
respectively, stating the reasons therefor'' after ``hearing cases''.
    1961--Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 1, repealed subsec. (c) 
which provided for establishment of review staff, its composition, 
responsibility and duties.
    Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, substituted provisions which 
authorized the delegation of functions by published rule or by order to 
a panel of commissioners, and individual commissioner, an employee 
board, or an individual employee, and of review functions to an employee 
board of three or more employees, enumerated the functions to be 
delegated, with stated exceptions, and prescribed majority vote for 
order delegating review functions for former provision which authorized 
the assignment of reference of work, business or functions by order to 
an individual commissioner or commissioners or to a board of one or more 
employees and eliminated provision concerning force, effect and 
enforcement of orders, now incorporated in par. (3) of this subsection.
    Subsec. (d)(2). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, added par. (2). The subject 
matter was formerly covered by the introductory words of former par. (1) 
of this subsection which read ``Except as provided in section 409 of 
this title.'' Sentences 1 and 2 of former par. (2) redesignated pars. 
(4) and (6), respectively.
    Subsec. (d)(3). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, redesignated second sentence 
of former par. (1) as par. (3) and substituted therein ``report, or 
action made or taken pursuant to any such delegation, unless reviewed as 
provided in paragraph (4), shall have'' and ``other actions'' for 
``report made, or other action taken, pursuant to any such order of 
assignment or reference shall, unless reviewed pursuant to paragraph 
(2), have'' and ``action'', respectively. Former par. (3) redesignated 
(9).
    Subsec. (d)(4). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, redesignated first sentence 
of former par. (2) as par. (4), included ``action'' in enumeration, and 
inserted provision for review on initiative of the Commission.
    Subsec. (d)(5). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, added par. (5).
    Subsec. (d)(6). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, redesignated second sentence 
of former par. (2) as par. (6), inserting ``for review'' after 
``applications'' and substituting ``the Commission'', ``the order'', 
``it may order'' and ``in accordance with'' for ``it'', ``such order'', 
``may order'' and ``under'', respectively.
    Subsec. (d)(7), (8). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, added pars. (7) and 
(8).
    Subsec. (d)(9). Pub. L. 87-192, Sec. 2, redesignated former par. (3) 
as (9) and made it applicable to each panel of the Commission, each 
employee board instead of each board, and each individual employee.
    1952--Act July 16, 1952, amended section generally to provide for 
the organization of the staff, integrated bureaus, and for a review 
staff.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 405, 409 of this title.
