Ajit Pai will serve as the FCC‘s Chairman for another five-year term after the U.S. Senate voted to extend his leadership with the agency.
“I am deeply grateful to the U.S. Senate for confirming my nomination to serve a second term at the FCC. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to advance these critical priorities in the time to come.”
Some senators sought to unseat Pai, calling his tenure a threat to the open internet. Since Pai took the reigns at the FCC in January, he’s focused on undoing much of what previous Chairman, Tom Wheeler, put into place, including net neutrality regulations.
Senator Maria Cantwell said the following as part of her remarks on the senate floor before the Commissioner vote:
“The internet and innovation that exists there could be greatly impacted by the rolling back of protections, that we have now, that says that ‘you cannot artificially throttle or slow down internet activity or hold consumers hostage to pay more.’ The mission of the F.C.C. is to promote the use and deployment of communications that are in the public interest. And it’s the job of the chairman to make sure that mission is carried out. Undoing the existing net neutrality laws on the books is not in the public interest and it won’t promote the access that we need. Dismantling this rule which would preserve the diversity of content, I think are things that will negatively impact our marketplace for a long time.”
Despite the opposition to Pai, the Republican-majority Senate voted him in.
