Remember last May when then-FCC commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker (pictured at left) ruffled a lot of feathers by taking a job at Comcast, only a few months after approving the cable company’s controversial merger with NBC? Well, Congresswoman Maxine Waters hasn’t forgotten, and she’s introduced legislation aimed at preventing these kinds of obvious shenanigans.

Dubbed the FCC Merging Entities Regulatory Guidance and Ethical Reform (yes, it spells “MERGER”) Act of 2011, the bill would prevent FCC commissioners from jumping ship to go work for any company on which the commission had made some sort of decision within the previous year.

“Although the Republicans continue to focus their FCC reform agenda on deregulation and aggressive efforts to diminish the Commission’s capacity to implement rules and reject mergers,” said Waters. “I strongly believe that the FCC should review its public comment process and assess whether improvements can be made to promote greater transparency and accountability.”

We wonder if the new law, if enacted, would do anything to stop any of the current commishes from leaving to go work for AT&T, since the FCC never actually arrived at a decision before the Death Star backed out of its plan to purchase T-Mobile USA.

Waters Introduces FCC Reform Bill [Broadcasting & Cable]

Thanks to CAT for the tip!

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