Ajit Pai’s tenure as chair of Trump’s FCC has been smooth sailing, in that he has had a corrupt Republican majority in the legislative branch of our government. Meanwhile, America has had a very rocky experience, as Pai has used his position to further deregulate the already mostly unregulated telecom marketplace while attacking the democratic expansion of communications in our country.
When Pai announced the FCC’s plans to rollback net neutrality protections, the comment period became a big disaster, with Pai lying to the public and Congress about the nature of those comments. The reason for Pai’s deception seems to have been that in convoluting the discussion around the comment period on net neutrality, Pai didn’t have to respond to the majority of Americans who did not want to see him and his FCC strip away consumer protections.
But the legislative branch is no longer completely controlled by a group of politicians living at the bottom of a big-business swamp. With the Democratic Party’s sweeping victories last November, the House of Representatives is now under the control of various representatives with all kinds of questions about how the government has been running for the past couple of years. Ajit Pai’s FCC is finally under that magnifying glass, as Democratic Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania sent a letter to Pai voicing some of their concerns.
When you were nominated for the chairmanship almost two years ago, we shared some thoughts on how to achieve success at managing the FCC. While much has changed during that time, our advice to you remains the same-to be responsive to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle; to drive towards consensus on all major FCC actions; and to respect the invaluable expertise of the career staff, which gives the FCC the credibility it needs to carry out its regulatory mission. Unfortunately, this has not happened.
