420
PUBLIC LAW 87-192-AUG. 31, 1961
[75
ST A T.
Public Law 87-192 August 31, 1961 [S. 2034]
C otnmunications Act of 1934, amendment. 66 Stat. 712. 47 USC 155.
D e l e g at i o n o f functions. Publication.
60 Stat. 237. 5 U S C 10 0 1 note.
5 USC 1006. " O r d e r, decis i o n, report, or action.'" P o s t, p. 422.
Application review.
Post, p. 421.
for
AN ACT To am^id the Communications Av,t of 1934, as amended, in order to expedite and improve the administrative process by atithorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate functions in adjudicatory cases, repealing the review staff provisions, and revising related provisions. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That subsection (c) of section 5 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, relating to a "review staff", is hereby repealed. SEC. 2. Subsection (d) of section 5 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, is amended to read as follows: " (d)(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) 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 the Administrative Procedure Act), the delegation in any such case may be made only to an employee board consisting of three or more employees referred to in paragraph (8). Any such rule or order may be adopted, amended, or rescinded only by a vote of a majority of the members of the Commission then holding office. 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 7(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act, of any hearing to which such section 7(a) applies. " (2) As used in this subsection (d) 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). "(3) Any order, decision, report, or action made or taken pursuant to i n y such delegation, unless reviewed as provided in paragraph (4), 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). "(6) I n 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 pa^s. "(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.
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