Congressional Republicans are demanding to know how much the White House influenced the Federal Communications Commission while the agency crafted net neutrality rules.
The FCC has until Monday afternoon to produce unredacted email messages, focused on net neutrality rules, between FCC staff and officials with the Obama administration, U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz said in a letter to the FCC Friday. The Utah Republican is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Chaffetz's committee is "investigating the potential involvement of the White House" in the creation of proposed net neutrality rules that the FCC is scheduled to vote on next Thursday, he said in the letter. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will propose regulations that would reclassify broadband as a regulated telecommunications service instead of a lightly regulated information service.
An FCC spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for a comment on Chaffetz's letter.
Several congressional Republicans have accused the White House of improperly influencing the FCC net-neutrality rule-making process, after Obama called on the agency to reclassify broadband as a regulated public utility in November. Wheeler appeared to change his position and embrace that idea after the president urged the independent agency to do so, critics have said.
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You don't suppose that Ob's Czars visited Wheeler???
ReplyDeleteaka: A bunch of politicians still trying their best to pull in fundraising dollars from the telecom industry next election cycle. Makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteI suppose there will be another rash outbreak of hard drive failures.
ReplyDeleteNo hard drive failure, 4:40
ReplyDeleteThey just flipped the Congress off and went on with their plan.