Is politics tearing apart the FCC? A retiring commissioner says yes.

A Q&A with Mignon Clyburn, outgoing commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. 

Why leave now? "Well, I believe it's time. And I also believe that I can be more effective on the outside. You know that for the past 15 or so months I've been on the other side of the winning debate when it comes to just, reasonable and fair rates for inmates and their families, when it comes to looking out for those individuals who cannot afford a dial tone, with the Lifeline program that would also have enabled them to have broadband affordably. And so, I just found that this was the time, it was the place for me to leave and to be an advocate, a more effective advocate, on the outside versus at the FCC."

Is your work being undone? Well, a lot of the things that we put forth that were hard fought, they have been reversed. But I am uplifted because there are a number of state attorneys general who have said, "Look, the FCC, we believe you are on the wrong side of history, that you are not doing what it takes to protect the privacy of individuals in this nation, to provide broadband-enabled services in which it's a legally sustainable framework. We believe that you've got it wrong." So you notice 23 attorneys general have weighed in and said, "We're going to sue the FCC because of the repeal of net neutrality." And so those states said, "The FCC is punting and won't do anything about it? Then we will."