Eisenach Says US Back on Deregulatory Path to Antitrust Reliance, Lauds Pai, Kennard
U.S. policy is moving toward more deregulation and reliance on antitrust enforcement to address market abuses, said American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Jeffrey Eisenach, a member of then-President-elect Donald Trump's FCC transition team. In a speech at an FCBA event…
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Wednesday, Eisenach gave a big thumbs-up to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and he singled out William Kennard, chairman from 1997 to 2001, for laying a deregulatory foundation. “What is the path forward? I think Chairman Pai is on it," Eisenach said. "He’s not only insisting on and promoting debate around the facts, the issues, and analysis, but also ... cheerfully using communications skills.” Eisenach is "especially enthusiastic" about Pai's proposal to create an Office of Economics and Data. He credited Kennard for devising a strategic plan in the late 1990s that envisioned an agency transition from industry regulator to market facilitator as the internet and other innovations eroded distinctions between market segments. He said that plan was the "touchstone" of the Trump FCC transition team. “After many delays and detours, we seem to be back on a path that … will lead to the replacement of ex-ante regulation in the communications sector with a framework ultimately grounded in antitrust," he said. Eisenach said President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., collaborated on airline and trucking deregulation in the late 1970s, and President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., collaborated on the 1996 Telecom Act: “It’s far too much to hope that President Trump and Senator [Al] Franken [D-Minn.] will appear together at some point endorsing the same piece of legislation, but we have to hope." Government still will be needed, Eisenach said, such as in managing spectrum and providing subsidies and incentives to build out broadband; the question is how best to do it. He said there's a role for government to fund some broadband infrastructure efforts in remote rural areas. "Far and away, not the biggest waste of government money by any stretch would be to just do some direct spending in conjunction with incentives," he said, while warning against overdoing it. Eisenach congratulated and joked about ex-Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whom Trump said he would nominate to another term at the FCC (see 1706140046 and 1706140065). "Better late than never, but better now than sooner. So, I can’t resist. I’m happy she’s coming back to the commission and I’m so happy she’s been gone. Sorry,” he said, drawing some laughs.