Chairman Pai Response to Members of Congress Regarding Broadcast Ownership Rules

On May 14, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai responded to several Members of Congress over recent reforms of the FCC's broadcast ownership rules.  "I must respectfully decline your request not to implement any changes made to the media ownership rules in our 2017 Order on Reconsideration," he wrote. "The FCC has a statutory duty to ensure that our broadcast ownership rules keep up with changes in the media marketplace, and there is no reason to further delay the implementation of 2017 reforms that were themselves unreasonably delayed. Moreover, I would point out that the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit was asked to stop the FCC from implementing these changes and earlier this year declined to do so." Chairman Pai also denied the request to stop working on the review of the national ownership cap, as well as the request that the FCC stop approving any broadcast mergers or acquisitions on a blanket basis.