Choppy Waters for FCC on Hurricane Aid?

The commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission seemed to act in rapid-fire time this week to approve 5-0 an order aimed at helping hurricane-battered telecom networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But look closer for tensions beneath the surface.

Chairman Ajit Pai shot down ideas from Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (without calling her out by name) in his statement approving the order: "Because what’s needed to help the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands right now is action, not a hearing or a report." Rosenworcel in Sept called for public hearings in and a report on hurricane-battered parts of the U.S. to call attention to telecom woes following the storms. She strongly defended those ideas in her own statement Oct 4, saying it “boggles my mind” that the agency can’t make the same commitments it did following Katrina and Sandy. “Mother Nature’s wrath is sure to visit us again,” warned Rosenworcel, Pai’s colleague since they were sworn in together in 2012.