A new report from the Government Accountability Office (PDF) takes a look at FCC rulemaking procedures from the last five years to see if the agency is following its own guidelines. While the answer is generally yes, the report focuses on one troubling finding: FCC staffers routinely release privileged information to companies that lobby the agency before that information is made publicly available.

The GAO's examination concluded that groups which routinely participate in FCC rulemaking procedures often know when votes will be taken on specific rules, even before the information is made public. These schedules are not supposed to be released outside of the FCC until a formal announcement is made, and less-connected stakeholders must wait for these announcements.

It may not sound like a big deal, but the FCC prevents groups from lobbying the agency on particular issues once those issues are scheduled for a vote. This means, in the words of the GAO report, that "stakeholders with advance information about which rules are scheduled for a vote would know when it may be most effective to present their arguments to FCC, while stakeholders without access to this information may not."

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who requested the report, expressed unhappiness with the finding. "The FCC has a duty to be above-board in developing and implementing its rules," he said in a statement after receiving the report. "When the 'corporate insiders' and 'K-Street' crowd have the inside track on decisions critical to telecommunications, media, broadband or wireless policy, then the public and consumers are at an inherent disadvantage. Both the law and the public interest require that rulemaking decisions adhere to principles of openness and objectivity."

The report also revealed that the agency makes plenty of rules. Between 2002 and 2006, FCC commissioners made 1,835 decisions. That's not bad, but it's absolutely dwarfed by the 17,406 decisions made in the various FCC bureaus over the same time period.

The report recommended that the FCC tighten up its practices so that all members of the public have equal access to information. The GAO also suggested that the FCC develop a set of sanctions that would apply to staffers who breach the rules.