PCCA Journal 1st Quarter 2014 - page 36

PCCA Journal|1
st
Quarter 2014
36
Telecom News
Continued from page 35
LeBlanc Tapped as FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief
F
CC Chairman Tom Wheeler
recently announced his
intent to appoint Travis
LeBlanc as acting Chief of
the commission’s Enforce-
ment Bureau. LeBlanc previously served
as a top deputy and senior advisor to
California Attorney General Kamala
Harris, overseeing the office’s operations
and activities involving complex litiga-
tion and policy matters on a broad range
of issues, such as technology regulation,
telecommunications, high-tech crime,
cyber-security, privacy, intellectual prop-
erty, and antitrust.
“The credibility of the commission’s
rules depends on its enforcement ac-
tivities,” Wheeler said. “Travis LeBlanc
brings a wealth of experience with both
federal and state law enforcement, most
recently in the largest state Attorney
General’s office in the country. He is a
savvy prosecutor who also knows how
to secure agreements with private com-
panies in order to advance the public
mission.”
During his time in the Office of the
California Attorney General, LeBlanc
established and oversaw California’s first
high-tech crime and privacy enforcement
units. He also secured global agreements
with a number of high-tech companies
to protect consumer privacy, promote
online safety, and respect intellectual
property rights.
Before joining the California AG,
LeBlanc was an attorney in the Office
of Legal Counsel at the United States
Department of Justice, where he advised
the President and Attorney General on
significant matters of constitutional,
statutory, and regulatory law. Prior to
joining OLC, LeBlanc was an attorney
at Keker & Van Nest LLP in San Fran-
cisco, and Williams & Connolly LLP in
Washington, D.C., where he represented
corporate and individual clients in crimi-
nal and civil cases in federal and state
courts.
The Enforcement Bureau is the FCC’s
largest bureau and the primary organiza-
tional unit responsible for enforcement
of provisions of the Communications
Act, the commission’s rules, commission
orders, and terms and conditions of sta-
tion authorizations.
Upton and Walden Announce
Plans to Update the Communications Act
H
ouse Energy and Commerce Committee
Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Com-
munications and Technology Subcommittee
Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) on Decem-
ber 4 announced plans for the committee
to examine and update the Communications Act. Upton and
Walden made the announcement via Google Hangout, where
the committee leaders were joined by former FCC Commis-
sioner Robert McDowell as they outlined the need to update
the law to better fit the communications marketplace of today.
“Today we are launching a multi-year effort to examine our
nation’s communications laws and update them for the inter-
net era,” Upton said. “The United States has been the global
leader in innovation and growth of the internet, but unfor-
tunately, our communications laws have failed to keep pace.
Throughout the recent economic downturn and recovery,
the communications and technology sectors have remained
stalwarts of our national economy—providing services that
consumers demand while investing, innovating, and produc-
ing the high-quality jobs that all Americans strive for. We
must ensure that our laws make sense for today but are also
ready for the innovations of tomorrow.”
“When the Communications Act was updated almost 18
years ago, no one could have dreamed of the many innova-
tions and advancements that make the internet what it is
today. Written during the Great Depression and last updated
when 56 kilobits per second via dial-up modem was state
of the art, the Communications Act is now painfully out of
date,” Walden said. “We plan to look at the Communications
Act and all of the changes that have been made piecemeal
over the last 89 years and ask the simple question: ‘Is this
working for today’s communications marketplace?’ Our goal
is to make sure this critical sector of our economy thrives
because of the laws around it, not in spite of them.”
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