Senate Dems grill FCC chairman

Democrats grilled the new Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, at his first hearing before Congress since taking over the agency.

In his first month on the job, Chairman Ajit Pai has quickly begun rolling back a number of Obama-era initiatives and regulations, and faced tough questions from Dems at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

Topping the agenda, was Pai’s decision not to conduct an FCC review of the $85 billion proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger.

Pai decided that an FCC review of whether the merger was in the “public interest” was not necessary because the companies were not transferring any broadcast licenses in the deal. The Justice Department will still conduct its own antitrust review.

But when pressed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on that decision, Pai said he would be willing to have the agency’s lawyers review his conclusion and share their findings with the committee.

{mosads}The FCC chief said he was confident he made the right decision to not review the merger, but would share the legal analysis.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) also questioned if President Trump’s feud with CNN, one of Time Warner’s most prominent networks, over its coverage would affect how the administration judges the merger.

Pai told lawmakers he had no conversations with the Trump administration regarding the merger and would “commit to following all the appropriate protocols and ethical requirements” in reporting any conversations.

Udall also prodded Pai on Trump’s comments regarding the media, asking the chairman if he agreed that the press is an “enemy of the American people.”

Pai declined to answer saying that he didn’t want to, “wade into the larger political debates,” but that he supported the First Amendment.

Democrats also used the hearing the to voice opposition to the Trump administration withdrawing the nomination of former Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to another term on the FCC.

“I want to express my continued frustration that Jessica Rosenworcel is not sitting before us today as a commissioner,” said Senate Commerce Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) “The failure to confirm her last Congress, frankly, is a black mark on the Senate.”

Schatz hammered Senate Republicans on her nomination, claiming that they didn’t keep up their end of a deal in 2014 to jointly reconfirm both Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he will continue to push to get Rosenworcel on the FCC.

Pai, though, received praise from Senate Republicans.

He also discussed Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) legislation to roll back the FCC’s internet privacy rules.

Pai said that consumer privacy would still be protected under Section 222 of the Communications Act, which gives the agency the ability to regulate broadband providers’ use of consumer information on a case-by-case basis.

Under the current rules, broadband providers are barred from collecting consumer data that is deemed “sensitive,” like app data usage and web browsing  without expressed permission. Critics of the measures contend that restrictions on internet providers like AT&T and Comcast are unfair, noting that internet companies like Google and Facebook are under a different set of privacy rules. Internet companies regularly access and profit off consumer data in ways that service providers would have been restricted from doing.