Whether an administrative agency may accept cash payments in exchange for granting regulatory benefits required to be granted solely on relevant public interest considerations

QUESTIONS PRESENTED In the course of notice and comment proceedings to set the rules for an auction of spectrum licenses, the FCC entered into a secret agreement with one potential bidder to grant that bidder valuable waivers of unrelated FCC rules on the condition that the company bid at least $1.564 billion in the FCC’s H-Block Auction. May an administrative agency accept cash payments in exchange for granting regulatory benefits which are required to be granted solely on relevant public interest considerations? Does the entry into such a secret agreement by the Commission corrupt the integrity of the auction such that the auction should be declared invalid? i