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The FCC Is Full Again, With Three Republicans and Two Democrats (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the majority-rules dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The U.S. Senate today confirmed the nominations of Republican Brendan Carr and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel to fill the two empty seats on the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai congratulated the commissioners in a statement. "As I know from working with each of them for years, they have distinguished records of public service and will be valuable assets to the FCC in the years to come," Pai said. "Their experience at the FCC makes them particularly well-suited to hit the ground running. I'm pleased that the FCC will once again be at full strength and look forward to collaborating to close the digital divide, promote innovation, protect consumers, and improve the agency's operations."

Carr served as Pai's Wireless, Public Safety and International Legal Advisor for three years. After President Trump elevated Pai to the chairmanship in January, Pai appointed Carr to become the FCC's general counsel. Rosenworcel had to leave the commission at the end of last year when the Republican-led US Senate refused to re-confirm her for a second five-year term. But Democrats pushed Trump to re-nominate Rosenworcel to fill the empty Democratic spot and he obliged. FCC commissioners are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. esides Pai, Carr, and Rosenworcel, the five-member commission includes Republican Michael O'Rielly and Democrat Mignon Clyburn.

3 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. He does not mean it actually by ZorroXXX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pai said .. protect consumers, ..

    But in his mind, FCC's customers to serve are corporations.

    --
    When you are sure of something, you probably are wrong (search for "Unskilled and Unaware of It").
    1. Re:He does not mean it actually by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He's protecting consumers from high quality internet access.

      You seem to have a strong opinion on "net neutrality" without knowing what it was.

      In concept, net neutrality was designed to ensure carriers wouldn't charge different amounts for different types of services. That's a great concept.

      In reality net neutrality (at least the Obama/FCC version on paper, not what it was marketed as) was designed to wrap the entire ISP industry in so much legislation that upstarts couldn't get started and small-mid sized ISPs couldn't compete with the larger ISPs.

      As a rule of thumb: consumers and vendors aren't on the same side. If you see every or nearly every major player voicing their support for something it is bad for consumers. When you see consumers in a fit over something demanding it happen at the same time it is very much worth looking into what the Hell is actually in the regulation, because if everyone on all sides wanted it then it would already be reality and chances are someone is at the least misrepresenting things if not outright lying.

  2. Re:Welp, all you folks who voted Trump by stinerman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We really need all the minor parties to join a coalition that strictly advocates for getting rid of FPTP voting and nothing else. Trying to break up the duopoly by chipping away piecemeal isn't going to work. We need to start there if there is going to be any real change.