The recent criticism by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) of President Trump’s nominee for FCC Commissioner is yet another example of the complete breakdown of the most basic level of civility in Washington politics. Nelson objected to the choice of Brendan Carr as the third Republican Commissioner, based on Carr’s former role as legal adviser to Chairman Ajit Pai.
The major – and most immediate — issue is the FCC’s move to lighten its burdensome net neutrality rules by re-establishing ISPs as Title I carriers. Carr, a highly qualified appointee with impeccable credentials, would represent the third and deciding vote on this matter, as would any Republican Commissioner. Elections have consequences, which Democrats have continually refused to accept. It was the Democrat-controlled FCC, after all, which imposed Title II regulation in the first place.
The White House is now rightfully pushing net neutrality legislation to keep the rules from changing every time there is a switch in the FCC majority. It will be interesting to see how the Democrat members of Congress will try to obstruct any such legislative efforts to ease net neutrality regulation.
Meanwhile, the FCC has received some 10 million online comments in its net neutrality proceeding. Over 300 thousand have come from Russia, and several hundreds of thousands more from other foreign countries. How the FCC will review 10 million comments – or even determine which are legitimate and which are attempts to obfuscate and overwhelm the process – is a mystery.
The constant obstructionism by Democrat politicians and the radical and hateful behavior of their far-left base has affected us all. The telecommunications industry is certainly not immune from the debilitating effects.
