What bureacracies do
On Sept. 25, when I was still recovering from OneWebDay, the FCC started a new bureau: the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. (Press release here. Order here.)
The PSHSB (let's pronounce it FISH-sab, okay?) has many responsibilities. It will “serve as the point of contact for the U.S. Government in matters of international monitoring.” It will “represent the Commission in public safety, homeland security, national security, emergency preparedness, disaster management, defense and related matters requiring conferences or communications with other governmental officers, departments, or agencies.” Basically, everything the Commission does that has to do with these issues will be handled by FISH-sab.
It's an enormous mandate:
Develops, recommends, and administers policy goals, objectives, rules, regulations, programs and plans for the Commission to promote effective and reliable communications for public safety, homeland security, national security, emergency management and preparedness, disaster management and related activities, including public safety communications (including 911, enhanced 911, and other emergency number issues), priority emergency communications, alert and warning systems (including the Emergency Alert System), continuity of government operations, implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directives and Orders, disaster management coordination and outreach, communications infrastructure protection, reliability, operability and interoperability of networks and communications systems, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), and network security.
Now, there's nothing wrong with coordination in times of emergencies, and it's true that many of FISH-sab's duties used to be spread around different bureaus. But this new guy is responsible for “operability and interoperability of networks and communications systems.” That could mean anything at all, and certainly points to online responsibilities not delegated by Congress to the FCC in the Telecom Act (in my view). And this new guy is responsible for “communications infrastructure protection.” What's that? Could be anything. And “network security” is no small thing either.
We'll be hearing a lot about FISH-sab, I predict. In fact, FISH-sab may swallow the whole Commission eventually. A bureaucracy's main task is to replicate and extend its boundaries — to protect its turf so it will continue to get resources. This one, this new bureaucracy, looks like trouble.