It’s Official: Ajit Pai Is New FCC Chairman

President Donald Trump has picked a fierce critic of the Obama-era “net neutrality” rules to be chief regulator of the nation’s airwaves and internet connections. 

Monday afternoon, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai announced that President Donald Trump has selected him to succeed Tom Wheeler and lead the FCC. Several reports last week had said he was the pick.

“I am deeply grateful to the president of the United States for designating me the 34th Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,” Pai said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the new administration, my colleagues at the commission, members of Congress, and the American public to bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans.”

Pai had been one of the two Republican commissioners on a five-member panel that regulates the country’s communications infrastructure, including TV, phone and internet service. He’s been an FCC commissioner since 2012. 

There are currently just three members on the panel. The Republicans’ new majority at the FCC, along with their control of Congress and the White House, is expected to help them roll back policies applauded by consumer advocates that upset many phone and cable industry groups, including net neutrality rules that bar internet service providers from favoring some websites and apps over others.

Pai, an active Twitter user, posted Monday that “there is so much we can do together to bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans and to promote innovation and investment.”

AN INDUSTRY-FRIENDLY FCC

Pai has long maintained that the FCC under former Chairman Thomas Wheeler had overstepped its bounds, suggesting that he would steer the agency in a direction more favorable to big phone and cable companies. In a December speech, he expressed confidence that the 2015 net neutrality rules would be undone and said the FCC needed to take a “weed whacker” to what he considered unnecessary regulations that hold back investment and innovation.

Consumer advocates have been concerned that a deregulation-minded FCC could potentially allow more huge mergers, overturn new protections for internet users and lead to higher costs for media and technology companies that rely on the internet to reach consumers.

Pai opposed online privacy regulations that force broadband providers to ask consumers for permission before using their data, saying they are more onerous than the requirements for internet companies like Google and Facebook.

He voted against approving Charter Communication’s $67 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable and a smaller company, Bright House – not because he opposed the merger, but because he thought some of the conditions required by the FCC, like barring data caps on home internet service, amounted to government meddling in business.

PAI VS. THE ZERO RATING

Pai also criticized an FCC report on “zero rating” earlier this month, characterizing it as a meaningless document that won’t influence the FCC under Trump. The report, issued in the last days of the Obama administration, took issue with the way companies like AT&T and Verizon exempted their own video services from wireless data caps, effectively making them cheaper to stream on phones and tablets than rival services such as Netflix.

Future big media and telecom mergers may get a friendlier review under a Pai-led FCC. Pai voted to approve AT&T’s 2015 acquisition of DirecTV. And while he told The Wall Street Journal in December 2013 that the Obama administration was likely to oppose Comcast’s failed effort to acquire Time Warner Cable – he was right – he added that a Republican administration would be more likely to approve it.

The FCC currently has a 2-1 Republican majority and two empty seats, which will be filled by one Republican and one Democrat.

The son of immigrants from India, Commissioner Pai grew up in Parsons, Kan. He graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1994 and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1997, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and won the Thomas R. Mulroy Prize. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

His resume:

• 1997-1998 — Law clerk for Hon. Martin L.C. Feldman, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Law Clerk.

• 1998-2001 — Trial Attorney at the antitrust division, telecommunications task force of the U.S. Department of Justice.

• 2001-03 — Associate General Counsel, Verizon Communications.

• 2003-04 — Deputy Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Court.

• 2004-05 — Senior Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy.

• 2005-07 — Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.

• 2007-11 — FCC, Deputy General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, and Special Advisor to the General Counsel.

REACTION

NAB President Gordon Smith commented: “Without qualification, NAB supports President Trump’s selection of Ajit Pai to the position of FCC chairman. Ajit Pai is a known quantity who brings integrity, good humor and a fierce intellect to the commission. We look forward to working with him and his colleagues on a pro-growth FCC agenda that benefits tens of millions of Americans who rely on free broadcast radio and TV for the most popular content, credible news, and lifeline local emergency alerts.”

Shortly after the news of his choice was announced, House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) sent a letter to Pai congratulating him on his appointment, and asking him to make several commitments that they said would will increase the likelihood of a successful term.

“By some measures, the FCC oversees approximately one sixth of the United States economy,” the members wrote to Pai.  “Your success at managing such a critical agency is dependent on your ability to be responsive to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle; your willingness to drive towards consensus on major Commission actions; and your respect for career staff—the lifeblood of the agency.”

In the letter the members asked Pai to make three key commitments during his tenure as Chairman of the FCC:

• “You will ensure that the commission will brief relevant committee leadership — no matter their party — on all major decisions before the commission acts and that you will be responsive to all Congressional inquiries.

• “You will work with your colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to reach consensus before moving ahead with major policy decisions.

• “You will not take any effort to retaliate against, undermine, demote or marginalize civil servants on the basis of their analysis or their work under previous commission leadership.”

Gene Kimmelman, president-CEO at Public Knowledge, said of Pai’s appointment: “Commissioner Pai has a history of attacking consumer protections, from the Open Internet order to our right to privacy online. Even so, every commissioner who has been elevated to chairman discovers the job is very different from what he or she thought it would be. Most quickly discover that getting things done while running an agency sometimes requires a different set of skills as well as a willingness to compromise. With this in mind, we urge Chairman Pai to preserve consumer protections and to focus on driving down prices and expanding choices for all essential communications services while preserving the commission’s recent pro-competitive and consumer protection rules and actions.”

American Cable Association President-CEO Matthew M. Polka said: “ACA is pleased that President Trump has selected Ajit Pai as chairman of the FCC. Over his many years of service as a commissioner, he has demonstrated an extensive knowledge of communications law and policy and a deep understanding of the communications business and industry dynamic. Moreover, we at ACA have always found he has an open door to listen to our views and proposals. He respects and understands the concerns of independent cable operators, especially in those cases where they have been required to shoulder enormous regulatory burdens to the same extent as much larger providers, such as new obligations to comply with the Open Internet’s enhanced transparency rules.”

Parents Television Council President Tim Winter commented: “It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Commissioner Pai to protect the interests of children and families on matters that have come before the FCC in recent years. During his tenure at the FCC, Commissioner Pai has demonstrated his support for enforcing the longstanding broadcast indecency law, which gives the FCC authority to protect the publicly-owned broadcast airwaves from indecent content during times of the day when children are likely to be watching. He has always been a conscientious listener when the PTC has raised other matters of concern. And as a father of young children himself, he understands that media content can have a powerful and profound impact on children. We applaud today’s appointment of Commissioner Ajit Pai as the new FCC chairman. We stand ready, willing and able to help him on matters of mutual concern.”