EEO Form 395-B Reinstatement Update

Although the Report & Order and Further Rulemaking in the FCC’s EEO proceeding considering whether to reinstate the FCC’s Form 395-B, is on circulation among the Commissioners, it has not yet been made public, even in draft form.  The item is also not included on the FCC’s February Open Meeting Agenda.  It remains possible that the item could be released outside of a formal meeting.

Once the Report and Order & Further Rulemaking document is issued, we suspect reinstatement of the form will be part of the ordering language, but other EEO matters like additional rule changes may be part of the “further rulemaking” that requests additional comment.  We are curious to learn whether, or to what extent, submission of data under any new reporting requirement will be confidential.

The EEO 395-B form previously collected gender and ethnicity information for broadcast station employees but was suspended over two decades ago.