FCC Promotes GOP Praise for Pai's Title II Proposal

The FCC Tuesday posted online atop the home page headlines a couple of pages full of quotes from legislators on FCC chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to roll back the classification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II regs, billing it as "What Capitol Hill Is Saying About FCC Chairman Pai’s Proposal to Restore Internet Freedom."

An FCC vote on his proposal is scheduled for May 18.

The list of legislators includes quotes from more than a dozen members of the House and Senate.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is quoted as calling it bold action to repel a regulatory assault, and House speaker Paul Ryan calls it welcome news," while a "bicameral statement" applauded Pai's move.

What it does not do is list the party affiliations, which are all Republicans, though it does list all of them as chairs of various committees, which means Republican.

But Capitol Hill Democrats are saying very different things.

For example, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, called it a "plan to ignore the will of the American people and kill net neutrality."

“FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is making a mistake," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), ranking member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee, following Pai's announcement of his plans. "His proposal would take away the American people’s access to a free and open internet and give control to big corporations."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.