Gov performance

The Federal Communications Commission's FY 2017 Annual Performance Report reflects the strategic and performance goals included in the FCC's FY 2017 Budget proposal, which contained the FCC's FY 2017 performance plan, and which was submitted to Congress in February of 2016, prior to my tenure as the FCC's agency head. The FCC has updated its strategic and performance goals since the Presidential transition in January of 2017 to reflect the priorities of the administration of the FCC under my chairmanship.

"It has long been customary at the Federal Communications Commission for Bureaus planning to issue significant orders on delegated authority to provide those items to Commissioners 48 hours prior to their scheduled release. Then, if anyone Commissioner asked for the Order to be brought up to the Commission level for a vote, that request would be honored." That is a direct quote from then-Commissioner Ajit Pai during testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on March 18, 2015.

On January 31, 2018, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai provided Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA) an update on the FCC's efforts to advance the implementation of the National Life Verifier. Over the last quarter, FCC staff have:

At the end of January, San Jose's (CA) Mayor, Sam Liccardo, brought the issue of the digital divide fight into the open, publicly resigning from a Federal Communications Commission committee tasked with recommending ways to speed up broadband deployment. "I concluded that there is no will from this FCC or from this committee to put the lip service about bridging the digital divide into action," Mayor Liccardo said. "And I decided it was time to stop participating in this charade that there was a legitimate voice for local communities at this table."

I would like to discuss how my approach to select communications policies is informed by certain conservative principles, with a fair hint of libertarianism. In my first visit to Hudson, I declared preserving and advancing economic freedom to be my primary goal
and the paramount lens by which I would examine issues at the Commission.  Fast forward four years and economic freedom has generated some subcomponents worthy of discussion, thereby allowing a more fulsome examination of certain policy matters. So, with your indulgence, I’d like to explore some of these this afternoon:

As of September 30, 2017, only two BTOP infrastructure projects remained in active status: Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS) and the Executive Office of the State of Mississippi (Mississippi). All remaining projects completed their project activities. NTIA continues to protect taxpayer investments by proactively engaging with these grant recipients to monitor project activities and grant compliance. Each quarter, the active BTOP recipients also report their financial and project performance.

American Action Forum Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart: “The FCC needs to be a datafirst organization, and the creation of such an office could help reorient the agency toward more empirically grounded analysis.” (Full Steam Ahead On The FCC’s Office Of Economics And Analytics, Blog, 1/17/18)

On Dec 1, 2017, Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai requesting information about the steps the FCC is taking to recover forfeiture penalties it proposed four years ago against Lifeline carriers that had profited from violating program rules. 

On Jan 19, 2018, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai responded to various Members of Congress regarding the Restoring Internet Freedom Proceeding, who had raised concerns over the FCC's handling of the 50,000 informal complaints from the National Hispanic Media Coalition's FOIA request.