FCC Staff Undoes Host of Items, Actions From Wheeler's Tenure
Staff in several FCC bureaus, sometimes acting jointly, undid numerous actions from the administration of then-Chairman Tom Wheeler. All withdrawn Friday afternoon: a report raising questions on zero rating practices of AT&T and Verizon; an inquiry about Comcast's video streaming practices; staff guidance that could have placed additional standards of review on mergers and acquisitions of TV stations involving some resource and other sharing pacts; actions on TV station political advertising that highlighted a need for disclosure of certain information; and a report on E-rate modernization. Other actions effectively canceled were on cybersecurity and 5G device security.
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Many of the actions had been taken in the final days of Wheeler's tenure, which ended Jan. 20. Many had been subject to criticism, with some deeming several of them "midnight" actions taken soon before FCC control shifted to Republicans with Donald Trump's swearing-in as president that day. See www.communicationsdaily.com/featured. Chairman Ajit Pai has been moving the agency in a different direction.
“In the waning days" of the last administration, FCC bureaus and offices "released a series of controversial orders and reports," said a statement to us from Pai. "In some cases, Commissioners were given no advance notice whatsoever of these midnight regulations. In other cases, they were issued over the objection of two of the four Commissioners. And in all cases, their release ran contrary to the wishes expressed by the leadership of our congressional oversight committees." The last-minute actions "are being revoked," he said.
Mignon Clyburn, the sole Democratic commissioner, called the moves a "Friday news dump." Her office unsuccessfully sought more than the allotted two days to review all the items, she said. "Multiple Bureaus retract -- without a shred of explanation -- several items released under the previous administration that focus on competition, consumer protection, cybersecurity and other issues core to the FCC’s mission," she added.
Already Friday afternoon, some entities that were subject to the now-abandoned actions cheered, including AT&T and Verizon. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the move on zero rating "recommits to permissionless innovation."