Ex parte

An ex parte comment or presentation is one made outside of the normal comment period for a regulatory proceeding. In the interest of fairness, the public must be alerted to this extra lobbying and so an ex parte submission is made to the docket (or file for that particular rulemaking action) summarizing the communication.

Ex parte presentations are typically face-to-face meetings at FCC headquarters between high-level corporate executives or lobbyists and FCC Commissioners or their close advisers.

Typically the attorney for the presenter will accompany the executive or lobbyist and within a day he or she will prepare the notification letter of the exparte contact and deliver it to the FCC for inclusion in the docket.

These days this is done electronically.

People like me can then check the docket (via the FCC's e-filing system) periodically to see what's been going on. Lobbyists of course read the ex parte reports to see what the competition is telling the FCC.