FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he wouldn't “wade into” the argument over fake news (see 1703150063) because it's a “political debate." His remarks came during a news conference Thursday. News media “perform an important job,” Pai said, declining to respond to questions about whether he agreed with President Donald Trump that media outlets such as The New York Times and ABC News were fake news. “I’ve been very clear about the importance I place on First Amendment freedoms,” Pai said. “This is a political debate that is happening with political actors.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai offered a one-word answer -- “No” -- to the question from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats on whether he sees media as the enemy of the American people. Democratic senators had pressed Pai during an oversight hearing on whether he agreed with President Donald Trump’s rhetoric accusing certain news outlets as an “enemy of the American people,” questions they said he fell short in answering and pursued in writing later (see 1703150063). “I should note that at the hearing, I was asked if I agreed with the President that the media was the ‘enemy’ of the people,” Pai said in his reply, sent Friday. “However, the President has made clear that he was referring to ‘fake news.’ As I stated at the hearing, these comments are part of a larger political debate into which I will not be wading.” Trump has repeatedly slammed mainstream news outlets as "fake," including in a tweet Monday lambasting “Fake News CNN.” Last week, he tweeted “fake news” in response to reports on a released excerpt of his tax documents, which administration officials themselves confirmed as genuine. “I welcome the opportunity to reiterate my strong support for the First Amendment rights of the media and all Americans,” Pai told Senate Democrats. “During my time at the Commission I have consistently opposed any effort to infringe upon the freedom of the press and have fought to eliminate regulations that impede the gathering and dissemination of news.” Pai committed to exercise his media regulation authority in an impartial manner and in a way that doesn't violate the First Amendment, with independence from the executive branch. Pai didn't commit to the administration to take action against any industry outlets, he said. He said he would inform Congress and the public if the executive branch tries to sway his choices. A House Democrat introduced legislation on these issues last week (see 1703170064). "The question was whether Chairman Pai believes the media is the enemy of the people; it shouldn't take two attempts to get a less than full-throated defense of freedom of speech from an FCC commissioner who has called himself a defender of the 1st amendment," Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., told us in a statement Monday. He was the senator who first pressed Pai on the topic.
FY 2018 funding details for the FCC and FTC “will be provided when the full budget is released in mid-May,” a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget told us. May is when the White House said it will release a fuller plan. The administration released a slim version Thursday, which showed cuts for the Commerce Department and a wholesale axing of the CPB (see 1703160060). That budget proposal also referred to a 9.8 percent cut to “other agencies,” not naming specific ones. The OMB spokesman said these unnamed agencies wouldn't receive such a cut across the board. Congressional appropriators have discretion on how much leeway they show the administration proposal. John Holdren, who directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration, issued a statement saying the budget outline's enactment would be a setback “for U.S. leadership in science and technology.”
The FTC plans to continue to “vigorously enforce” the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield as part of the agency's role as the “chief privacy enforcer” in the U.S., said acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen during a Financial Times event Wednesday. FTC and International Trade Administration officials said before President Donald Trump's inauguration they were hopeful the commission's commitment to the Privacy Shield would continue after then-President Barack Obama left office (see 1611090016, 1611100039 and 1611210032). “We have committed to investigate Privacy Shield companies on our own initiative,” Ohlhausen said. “We will prioritize referrals from European data protection authorities. And we will monitor our orders to ensure compliance with the framework. When companies don’t comply with orders, we will bring enforcement actions.” The FTC is also committed to working with EU institutions on improving the Shield's effectiveness, including participating in the European Commission's annual review of the framework and meeting with the Article 29 Working Party, Ohlhausen said. The chair said she has been “pleased to see that [the Trump administration] has affirmed its commitment” to the Privacy Shield given the framework's importance to U.S.-based business interests. EU agencies and U.S. businesses sought reassurances from the FTC after Trump's election and inauguration, including whether Trump's executive orders on immigration from some majority-Muslim countries (see 1701290001, 1702060016 and 1702100042) would affect Privacy Shield enforcement. “We don't believe it will,” Ohlhausen said. Enforcement of the Privacy Shield and other international privacy frameworks “is an integral part” of the FTC's cybersecurity and privacy program, Ohlhausen said. She cited the agency's privacy memorandums of understanding with Ireland, the Netherlands and U.K. and the agency's participation in the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. An “ongoing dialogue” with EU partners is necessary because of the ongoing misconception “that this is the Wild West” for privacy, Ohlhausen said. The FTC has “an extremely robust record” on privacy, she said.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information request with the FCC seeking copies of any records about the March 6 meeting between Chairman Ajit Pai and President Donald Trump (see 1703060055), including memos, briefing papers, emails and talking points, EPIC said Thursday. It requested expedited processing of the FOIA request, saying there's urgency due to Trump describing the media as "enemies of the people" and some media outlets have business before the FCC. EPIC pointed to Congress' considering using the Congressional Review Act to overturn the agency's privacy rules and the agency's stay of parts of the privacy order (see 1703010069). The FCC didn't comment Monday.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to overhaul aspects of the executive branch. It’s “a major step toward making the federal government efficient, effective and accountable to the people,” Trump said during the signing ceremony. “Today, we’re beginning the process of a long overdue reorganization of our federal departments and agencies.” Cabinet secretaries should be empowered to make their agencies as effective and “lean” as possible, Trump said. The order demands “a thorough examination of every executive department and agency to see where money is being wasted, how service can be improved and whether programs are truly serving American citizens,” Trump said. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will oversee this process, Trump said. Expect “a detailed plan” to make the government work better based on this process, he said. Trump will work with Congress to implement the resulting recommendations, he said. Text of the order wasn't immediately released.
The Trump administration evidently has “a comprehensive approach to infrastructure” at the “very top of mind,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield in a blog post about a Thursday meeting at the White House as part of the Rebuild Rural Coalition “to meet with the special assistant to the president for Infrastructure as well as the special assistant to the president for Agriculture.” Representatives of Capitol Hill leadership, the Farm Credit Council, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, other groups and the Agriculture Department were also present, she said. “I talked as quickly as I could to share some key points in terms of sharing insights on leveraging existing broadband programs that help with the business case for investment,” Bloomfield said. “Putting supplemental resources into high-cost USF will bring more bang for the buck immediately, rules are clear, targeting is good and accountability is high. In addition, permitting and siting -- federal lands, state highways, and railroads all have an impact.” The administration is in the process of putting together an infrastructure proposal now for Capitol Hill. Bloomfield testified on broadband infrastructure before the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month (see 1703010075).
President Donald Trump's feelings toward the news media are immaterial; what matters is that he respects the First Amendment and "acts with dignity," said News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern in a blog post Friday which NMA emailed a notification about on Monday. NMA said that a Trump tweet calling the media the "enemy of the American people" employed rhetoric "usually reserved for terrorists."
The Trump administration is alerting agencies of top-line discretionary spending numbers for FY 2018 funding starting Monday, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters at a White House news conference. The administration is upping defense spending by $54 billion, up to $603 billion, and cutting nondefense spending by that same amount, Mulvaney said. The cutting “reduces duplicative programs” and “programs that simply don’t work,” he said. “This is not a full-blown budget. That will not come until May.” The rise in defense spending "will be offset and paid for finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government,” President Donald Trump said Monday during a meeting with governors. The administration will strive to supply a looser budget outline to Congress by March 16, fitting with earlier rough anticipated timelines, and a full budget by the “first part of May,” Mulvaney said. The budget planning now doesn't address certain programs such as infrastructure, he said. The broader infrastructure discussions are ongoing and will likely happen outside the budget process, Spicer said. “I know there’s a lot of discussion” on public-private partnerships “in terms of the funding mechanism,” Spicer said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking at an event Monday, said "if it's tax breaks, we're not going to be for it," an infrastructure funding "nonstarter" that Schumer has communicated to Trump. "It should be paid for," Schumer said. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats would back inclusion of broadband, speaking at the same event. Capitol Hill Democrats warned against the level of cutting floated Monday. “A $54 billion cut will do far-reaching and long-lasting damage to our ability to meet the needs of the American people and win the jobs of the future,” Pelosi said. Schumer said the cuts would put a burden on the middle class. Spokespeople for entities including the Commerce Department, the FCC and the CPB (see 1702270058) didn’t comment Monday on what the top-line numbers may mean for their operations.
CTA hailed President Donald Trump’s Friday executive order directing each federal agency to create a “regulatory reform task force” to evaluate regulations for possible “repeal, replacement, or modification.” Each task force “at a minimum” will try to identify regulations that “inhibit job creation,” are obsolete, unnecessary or ineffective, or “impose costs that exceed benefits,” the order said. It urges the task forces, as part of their evaluations, to “seek input” from entities that are “significantly affected” by federal rules, including state and local governments, consumers, small businesses and trade associations. That the task force “process” calls for getting such “feedback from stakeholders” should help it “distinguish between regulations we need for national harmonization versus the ones that are overly burdensome, crushing innovation and hampering startups,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a Monday statement. Tech startups “are the very first to feel the consequences of unnecessary regulations that ultimately stifle innovation and prevent opportunities for job growth here in the United States,” Shapiro said. “With two dozen federal agencies and more than 30 congressional committees covering IoT devices and tens of thousands of costly regulations, we are well overdue for a thorough examination of unnecessary, duplicitous and ineffective federal rules and regulations.” In the modern tech economy, "one-size-fits-all regulations spawn numerous unintended consequences that could stifle and suffocate our new economy," Shapiro said. "It’s also important to recognize that in some cases, non-regulatory, market-oriented solutions will avoid the costs and burdens of traditional regulation and deliver results faster."