Public Knowledge Responds to FCC Chairman Pai’s Proposal to Gut Net Neutrality Rules

Today's draft Order shows both an appalling disregard for the record and an astounding disregard for even the basics of administrative law. It would seem more likely, as some have suggested, that Chairman Pai and Congressional Republicans have released this Order to create a crisis atmosphere and push through legislation authored by the cable companies rather than in a serious attempt at policy. For almost 20 years, both Republican and Democratic Chairmen of the FCC have asserted the FCC’s ongoing responsibility and authority to protect consumers and promote competition in the broadband access market. Rather than admit that this draft Order is a radical break from a bipartisan consensus on FCC authority to protect consumers generally and net neutrality specifically, Chairman Pai prefers to surrender this power to broadband providers, enabling them to set their own ‘net neutrality’ standards. In an even more brazen violation of law, Chairman Pai claims to be able to simultaneously divest the FCC of authority while claiming unlimited power to preempt the states as well. Under Chairman Pai’s expansive theory of preemption, the FCC could -- in theory -- preempt every state law applicable to Google, Facebook, or any other information service. For a man claiming to correct the previous Administration’s ‘overreach,’ this is an astonishing claim to unlimited power to advance corporate interests at the expense of the public.