WASHINGTON D.C. - The Honorable Jim DeMint (R-SC), member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, will keynote "Regulatory Reform Options for Today's Digital Age," a Progress & Freedom Foundation luncheon scheduled for Tuesday, November 14th. The event, hosted by PFF's Digital Age Communications Act (DACA) project, will also mark the release of a working draft report from the project's Institutional Reform Working Group.

Senator DeMint earlier this year introduced the Digital Age Communications Act (S. 2113) in the Senate, which contains many of the market-oriented, competition-based reform concepts found in DACA working group proposals. He will speak on communications regulatory reform efforts in the Senate and his preferences for modernization. His speech will be followed by a panel of experts moderated by PFF Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies Scott Wallsten. A panel of regulatory experts will discuss the broader topic of communications regulatory reform in a DACA context.

The event will also be the debut of the latest DACA Working Paper, this time from the Institutional Reform Working Group. The Working Group is co-chaired by former PFF Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies Randolph J. May, and George Washington University School of Law Professor John F. Duffy. The report undertakes a careful comparison of alternative administrative agency structures and offers recommendations as to how best to organize rulemaking and adjudication functions within a new institutional framework consistent with the DACA regulatory framework proposal. "This new report, the last of the DACA working group reports, will provide a basis for considering meaningful reform of the current FCC structure which has remained essentially unchanged since the Radio Act of 1927," explains Co-Chair May, president of the Free State Foundation. "We hope the report will provoke Congress, policymakers, academics, and other interested citizens to consider whether, consistent with the overall DACA recommendations that would dramatically change the current Communications Act, there should be a substantial changes, embodying sound administrative law and democratic governance principles, in the institutional framework as well."

PFF launched DACA in February 2005 with the intent of providing guidance for regulators and legislators on how to address regulatory issues in an era of competing digital services and platforms. DACA consists of dozens of individuals, including key advisors from five Presidential administrations, PFF fellows, scholars at other think tanks and universities, and public policy officials from the last five presidential administrations. There are five working groups -- Regulatory Framework, Federal/State Framework, Universal Service/Social Policy, Spectrum Policy, and Institutional Reform. This upcoming release from the Institution Reform group marks the last in the series of initial reports to come out of the project. Several working groups have also drafted second reports, with changes based on public feedback and suggestions.

PFF's latest DACA Project event will be held Tuesday, November 14th at the Russell Senate Office Building, Room 188, from 11:00am - 1:00pm. Lunch will be served. Those wishing to attend should register online. Questions should be addressed to Eileen Goulding at 202-289-8928 or egoulding@pff.org. Media should direct queries to Amy Smorodin at 202-289-8928 or asmorodin@pff.org.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.