Dole would power over Bell firms to the FCC.

Authority to control the future of the nation’s largest telephone companies would shift from U.S. District Judge Harold Greene to the Federal Communications Commission under legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.). Since Jan. 1, 1984, when American Telephone & Telegraph was divested of its local phone operations to settle an antitrust suit, the resulting seven regional companies have had to obtain waiver’s to the settlement decree from Greene before entering other businesses.