Sec. 19.735-202  Financial interests prohibited by the Communications 
          Act.

    (a) No Commissioner shall have a pecuniary interest in any hearing 
or proceeding in which he participates. (47 U.S.C. 154(j).)
    (b)(1) Section 4(b) of the Communications Act, at 47 U.S.C. 
154(b)(2)(A), provides:

    No member of the Commission or person employed by the Commission 
shall:
    (i) Be financially interested in any company or other entity engaged 
in the manufacture or sale of telecommunications equipment which is 
subject to regulation by the Commission;
    (ii) Be financially interested in any company or other entity 
engaged in the business of communication by wire or radio or in the use 
of the electromagnetic spectrum;
    (iii) Be financially interested in any company or other entity which 
controls any

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company or other entity specified in clause (i) or clause (ii), or which 
derives a significant portion of its total income from ownership of 
stocks, bonds, or other securities of any such company or other entity; 
or
    (iv) Be employed by, hold any official relation to, or own any 
stocks, bonds, or other securities of, any person significantly 
regulated by the Commission under this act; except that the prohibitions 
established in this subparagraph shall apply only to financial interests 
in any company or other entity which has a significant interest in 
communications, manufacturing, or sales activities which are subject to 
regulation by the Commission.

    (2) To determine whether an entity has a significant interest in 
communications related activities that are subject to Commission 
regulations, the Commission shall consider, without excluding other 
relevant factors, the criteria in section 4(b) of the Communications 
Act, at 47 U.S.C. 154(b)(3). These criteria include:
    (i) The revenues and efforts directed toward the telecommunications 
aspect of the business;
    (ii) The extent of Commission regulation over the entity involved;
    (iii) The potential economic impact of any Commission action on that 
particular entity; and
    (iv) The public perception regarding the business activities of the 
company.
    (3)(i) Section 4(b) of the Communications Act, at 47 U.S.C. 
154(b)(2)(B)(i), permits the Commission to waive the prohibitions at 47 
U.S.C. 154(b)(2)(A). The Act's waiver provision at 47 U.S.C. 
154(b)(2)(B)(i) provides:

    The Commission shall have authority to waive, from time to time, the 
application of the prohibitions established in subparagraph (A) of 
section 4(b) to persons employed by the Commission if the Commission 
determines that the financial interests of a person which are involved 
in a particular case are minimal, except that such waiver authority 
shall be subject to the provisions of section 208 of title 18, United 
States Code. The waiver authority established in this subparagraph shall 
not apply with respect to members of the Commission.

    (ii)(A) Requests for waiver of the provisions of 47 U.S.C. 
154(b)(2)(A) may be submitted by an employee to the Head of the 
employee's Office or Bureau, who will endorse the request with an 
appropriate recommendation and forward the request to the Designated 
Agency Ethics Official. The Designated Agency Ethics Official has 
delegated authority to waive the applicability of 47 U.S.C. 
154(b)(2)(A).
    (B) All requests for waiver shall be in writing and in the required 
detail. The dollar value for the financial interest sought to be waived 
shall be expressed explicitly or in categories of value provided at 5 
CFR 2634.301(d).
    (C) Copies of all waiver requests and the action taken thereon shall 
be maintained by the Designated Agency Ethics Official. In any case in 
which the Commission exercises the waiver authority established in 
section 4(b) of the Communications Act, the Commission shall publish 
notice of such action in the Federal Register and shall furnish notice 
of such action to the appropriate committees of each House of the 
Congress. Each such notice shall include information regarding the 
identity of the person receiving the waiver, the position held by such 
person, and the nature of the financial interests which are the subject 
of the waiver.