Policymakers

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department recently agreed to tell lawmakers if the White House tries to improperly influence any decision he makes on whether to allow AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. The commitment came in a meeting between the nominee, Makan Delrahim, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who wrote a July 24 letter memorializing the discussion.

“I particularly appreciated your commitment that you will brief me, in an appropriate setting, any time the White House initiates an inappropriate communication with you or anybody in the Antitrust Division,” the senator wrote to Delrahim after the meeting. People familiar with the meeting, which also included Senate and Justice Department staffers, confirmed the exchange and said the men also generally discussed the importance of the department’s independence. They said Delrahim additionally provided assurances that officials at the White House have not sought to lobby him on AT&T. The White House and the Justice Department communicate with one another, but protocols governing those discussions seek to assure that the department can operate free from improper political intervention.

The Federal Communications Commission is one step closer to being fully staffed, but Democratic Sens are fighting Republican Sens on details for Republican nominee Brendan Carr's confirmation. During a hearing on Aug 2, members of the Senate Commerce Committee voted to approve the confirmations of Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Brendan Carr to the FCC panel of Commissioners. Current Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s reconfirmation to the FCC was also approved by lawmakers. The trio’s confirmation will proceed to a Senate-wide vote, requiring a simple majority for approval. If it passes, the Commission will be at full quorum, going from two Republicans and one Democrat to three Republicans and two Democrats.

Despite advancing, Democratic Sens contested Pai and Carr’s confirmations. Some Democrats, including Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-HI), voted against Pai’s renomination. Democrats voted along party lines against Carr’s nomination, saying that while they had no issue with Carr being nominated to his first year-and-a-half term, they did not yet want to agree to approving a second five-year term. Commerce Committee’s Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) noted Senate leaders of both parties were negotiating a deal for a final vote on the confirmations. According to Sen Nelson, the agreement would only include approval of Carr’s first year-and-a-half term. Other Democrats cited precedent as reason for pushing back against approving Carr to two terms. “We’re trying to keep the traditions of the committee intact,” Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) argued as he explained that the committee had not heard from current Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn as to whether or not she would like to be renominated.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm Christopher A. Wray as the next FBI director, filling the critical post that has remained vacant since President Donald Trump fired James B. Comey in May. President Trump’s firing of Comey immediately led to accusations that he was trying to impede the bureau’s Russia investigation and ultimately led to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Comey later testified that President Trump asked him for a “loyalty” oath and to drop a probe of former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials.

Wray, a former senior Justice Department official known for his low-key demeanor, told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that he would never pledge loyalty to the president and that if President Trump ever pressured him to drop an investigation, he would push back or resign. This pledge appeared to gain him the confidence of Senate Judiciary Committee lawmakers, who unanimously approved his nomination and urged their colleagues to vote in favor of his confirmation. The vote was 92 to 5 with five Democratic Sens voting against his nomination.

Apparently, Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News and top lieutenant to the network’s founder, Roger Ailes, has spoken with White House officials about taking a position on President Donald Trump’s communications team. Shine has no political experience outside of producing cable news, and he was forced out of Fox News in May after his name surfaced in lawsuits that accused him of abetting Ailes’s harassing behavior toward women. (Shine has denied all wrongdoing, as did Ailes, who died in May.)

But Shine has an influential ally in the Fox News host Sean Hannity, an informal adviser to President Trump — and one of his most loyal on-air supporters — who dined with Shine, the president and the first lady at the White House the week of July 24. Shine’s job prospects are unclear now that Trump has fired his communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, who also attended last week’s dinner and worked with Shine during his tenure as a host on Fox News and the Fox Business Network. Shine’s association with Scaramucci may hinder his chances with some factions in the West Wing.

Former President Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski blamed Reince Priebus for leaks from the White House, saying he was "ultimately responsible" in a "Fox & Friends" interview. "If Reince couldn't control those leaks and those leaks continued to permeate, then he was the one who was ultimately responsible, and Gen. [John] Kelly was brought in to make sure those leaks do not continue," Lewandowski said when asked why Priebus was fired as White House chief of staff.

President Donald Trump removed Anthony Scaramucci from his role as White House communications director just days after the New York financier was named to the job — a move made at the request of new White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. Scaramucci's brief tenure in the role had been marked by turmoil as he feuded publicly with then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Scaramucci's arrival at the White House prompted press secretary Sean Spicer to resign in protest. The abrupt decision signals that Kelly is moving quickly to assert control over the West Wing, which has been characterized by interpersonal disputes and power struggles during President Trump's six months in office. The retired Marine general, who was sworn in July 31, was brought into the White House in the hope that he will bring military-style discipline to Trump's staff. He has been fully empowered by the president to make significant changes to the organization, White House officials and outside advisers said.

Public Knowledge welcomes Katie Watson, Development Manager, to our team to support our telecommunications, copyright and internet policy advocacy efforts by leading fundraising initiatives and events. Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Watson was a Google Public Policy Fellow at New America’s Open Technology Institute and a Policy and Program Manager at Next Century Cities, where she assisted both urban and rural mayors with local broadband, digital inclusion, and civic technology initiatives. She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia, where she majored in both Foreign Affairs and Media Studies with a concentration in Media Policy and Ethics.
[Katie was previously an intern with the Benton Foundation].

A Q&A with former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Asked, "Do you think it will be Congress that eventually decides how the internet is regulated, and the fate of net neutrality principles?" Wheeler responded, "The question is what does Congress do? There is a law on the books right now. So if Congress is going to renege on that, or walk back the safeguards that are in existence and that have been in existence since 2015 then that’s the wrong thing to do. And it seems to me that the people who are championing doing this are the big ISPs–Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Charter–and they’re Republican supporters and are not the people who have historically stood for a fast, fair, and open internet."

Asked, "[FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai likes to say that ISP spending on infrastructure has been chilled by the Open Internet order. Is that a true assessment of what’s happened?" Wheeler responded, "First of all, that assertion is balderdash. That so-called study is highly suspect because it was done by somebody who has never liked the open internet rules, has always taken the position of the ISPs, and during my tenure was exposed for having selectively chosen information to make that same point. So let’s go to what the ISPs tell their financial regulator. You know there’s an important thing that the ISPs have a lobbying message at the FCC and the Congress that is designed to accomplish their goals of giving them free rein. But then over at the Federal Trade Commission they are under the penalty of law required to tell the truth. How does what they say in their financial filings differ from what they say at the FCC? Well, in their financial filings they say they are spending a constant amount–they say they are spending about 15% of revenue on infrastructure investment. Two days ago, Comcast had their quarterly report and reaffirmed they are spending 15% of revenue on building infrastructure. So if this is the best thing the Trump FCC can come up with, the impact on infrastructure argument, then they are playing a pretty weak hand."

[Commentary] In his written testimony to Congress, Brendan Carr, who has been nominated to be the third Republican Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, omitted the most important fact: He worked for AT&T, Verizon, Centurylink, as well as the CTIA, the wireless association, and the USTA, the telephone association. Moreover, much of this work has direct ties to his current work with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai (a former Verizon attorney). Together they have amassed a string of corporate-monopoly friendly, harmful consumer regulations that have passed or are percolating.

In the end, Carr and Pai clearly show that they are still working for the industry, not the public interest. On top of this, there are even holes in Carr’s work timeline, as told by his own LinkedIn bio. His resume shows he clerked for a judge in the 2008-2009 timeframe, while his bio shows him also working from 2005-2012 for Wiley Rein and the telecommunications companies and their associations. All of this should be a deal breaker. The Senate should not confirm Brendan Carr’s nomination as FCC Commissioner.

[Bruce Kushnick is the executive director of New Networks Institute]

[Commentary] The American people are far greater than the sum of our political parties. It is time for us to rise above our broken politics and renew the spirit that enabled us to achieve the seemingly impossible. This is why I am running for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

Our government is hamstrung by excessive partisanship. We are letting critical opportunities to improve the country pass us by. And we are not even talking about the most important thing: the future. The victims of this leadership failure are the good people we are sworn to serve, and we are leaving our country ill-prepared for dramatic changes ahead. The current administration is making us less prosperous and less secure. I’m running because I have an original approach to governing and economic policy that can put us on a different course.