The White House Endorses the FCC’s effort to roll back its net neutrality rules

The Trump Administration has signaled that it stands behind efforts by the Federal Communications Commission and its Chairman, Ajit Pai, to roll back the agency's network neutrality regulations for Internet providers. Speaking to reporters (audio only) on July 18, administration officials said that while rules can be helpful, the Obama administration “went about this the wrong way.” “We support the FCC chair's efforts to review and consider rolling back these rules,” said deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “and believe that the best way to get fair rules for everyone is for Congress to take action and create regulatory and economic certainty.”

The administration's move recalls similar efforts by the White House, during the Obama Administration, to make its opinion known on the issue of net neutrality. “The process raises serious questions about the president's inappropriate influence over what is supposed to be an independent agency that derives its authority from Congress and not the White House,” Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) said at the time in a letter to the FCC criticizing the matter. Still, some analysts say, any attempt by a White House to address pending FCC matters should be out of bounds. It was wrong when President Obama asserted himself, and it would be wrong for Trump to do so now, said Scott Wallsten, an economist and president of the Technology Policy Institute. “If the agency is independent, then the executive branch should stay out, plain and simple,” he said.