The Federal Communications Commission is launching a “consumer task force” to advance the commission’s consumer agenda and promote collaboration across the agency.

The agency says the task force will play a critical role in ensuring that commission proceedings take account of consumer interests, that consumer protection and empowerment policies are applied consistently and reasonably across technologies and bureaus at the FCC, that the public is able to engage fully in FCC processes, and that the agency enhances the public’s understanding of FCC work through state-of-the-art consumer information programs.

“The goal of protecting and empowering consumers is among the Commission’s most important responsibilities,” says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “As communications networks and technologies become increasingly complex and essential to Americans’ everyday lives, the commission must be a vigilant watchdog for the consumer.

Genachowski noted that while the agency currently has one bureau with ‘consumer' in its name – the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau – consumers are vital to the work of each of the FCC’s bureaus and offices.

The task force will include every FCC bureau chief, the Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the General Counsel, and the Managing Director. Joel Gurin, Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, will head the cross-agency task force.

As you might expect, we are in favor of any government effort to include consumers more intimately and effectively in making of policies and regulations. And we certainly welcome Genachowski’s pronouncement that the agency needs to be “a vigilant watchdog for the consumer.”

In the past, both FCC leaders and the rank-and-file bureaucracy have been properly criticized for being too chummy with industry and not always acting in the best interest of consumers.

We’ll be watching closely to see if the task force really delivers on the promise to make the FCC more consumer-friendly at all levels.

And while we welcome Genachowski’s pledge the agency will be vigilant watchdog for the consumer, we hope it doesn’t just bark when industry behaves badly and engages in anti-consumer practices. A truly effective watchdog not only barks, but it chases the intruder down the street and bites the offender when necessary.

Our hope is the FCC will increasingly view itself as a Rottweiler when it comes to protecting consumers.

Woof.