John Eggerton at Multichannel.com reports that four House Democrats want FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to make all broadcast station files machine readable so they can be more easily searched and inspected. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) sent an April 29 letter urging Wheeler "in the near term" to fulfill his pledge to make the files accessible. In 2012, the FCC made TV station public files available online in a central, FCC-administered database, with cable and satellite TV, and radio added to the mandate this year. Public broadcast files contain records of stations fulfilling public service commitments and what political ads they have aired, and other public information. Two weeks ago, while the measure failed, 179 members of Congress voted to support Luján's H.R. 4179, the Fair and Clear Campaign Act, an amendment to an FCC bill that would have required public files be machine readable. "With unprecedented spending from super PACs on broadcast advertisements during the current election cycle, this commonsense request is an essential first step to shedding sunlight on our current political system," the legislators wrote to Wheeler.