[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 156 (Thursday, September 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6202-S6203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the Pai nomination, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Ajit 
Varadaraj Pai, of Kansas, to be a Member of the Federal Communications 
Commission for a term of five years from July 1, 2016.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 1:45 
p.m. will be equally divided.
  The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I want to speak on the renomination of 
Ajit Pai to serve as Chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communications 
Commission, to serve for a term of 5 years.
  Under the previous administration, the FCC always had the consumers' 
back. Back then, that administration's FCC strengthened consumer 
protections. It furthered competition, it protected public safety, and 
it pushed forward to ensure universal service for all Americans.
  Ultimately, the success or failure of the FCC rises and rests not on 
the fulfillment of special interest wish lists but on the treatment of 
those who are least able to protect themselves and whether their First 
Amendment rights, including those of journalists, are vigorously 
protected.
  Chairman Pai has been a vocal and excessively partisan and often 
hostile opponent of pro-consumer steps taken by his colleagues on the 
FCC. We have seen that time after time in the previous administration.
  Since becoming Chairman of the FCC this year, he has systematically 
undercut much of the work done over the past 8 years. I want to give 
you several examples.
  He has acted to prevent millions of broadband subscribers from 
receiving key information about rates, terms, and conditions of their 
service. This is called disclosure. He has threatened the expansion of 
broadband into the homes of low-income Americans by limiting the 
effectiveness of the new Lifeline Program reforms. If that is not 
enough, he has proposed sweeping limits on the ability of States and 
localities to review and improve the installation of certain types of 
wireless equipment. Furthermore, he has supported the moves by the GOP 
Congress to eliminate commonsense privacy rules for broadband services.
  If all of that is not enough, he has eliminated several media 
ownership

[[Page S6203]]

rules, paving the way for a massive consolidation among TV and radio 
broadcast stations. Continuing, he has acted as if the way to improve 
broadband in rural America is to lower standards and saddle our most 
remote communities with slower speed and worse service. He has also 
opposed widely supported updates to the E-Rate Program, which brings 
broadband to schools and libraries in every State in the Nation and 
leaves that critical program's budget--and the American 
schoolchildren--in the dial-up era. That is not what we want for our 
students. Furthermore, he has curtailed rules designed to help small 
businesses, schools, libraries, and hospitals to find competitive 
options for high-capacity telecommunications services. What that is 
going to do is likely raise the cost of these services and potentially 
harm their quality.
  The list I just gave does not include the elephant in the room--
Chairman Pai's planned elimination of the FCC's net neutrality 
protections. This Senator has been very clear that I oppose the effort 
to revoke these essential consumer protections on the internet. I think 
Chairman Pai's proposed course is shortsighted, especially when his 
preferred approach seems to be the abandonment of the FCC's oversight 
on the action of broadband providers. These are actions that directly 
impact on the lives of millions of Americans.
  In March, I sent to Chairman Pai my deeply held concerns about some 
of these actions, and I expressed my sincere hope that his early moves 
were not a sign of things to come, but unfortunately my concerns have 
only been heightened by his record over the months since that 
conversation.
  At the end of the day, the FCC has a responsibility to put the public 
interests ahead of the powerful special interests. Just as it has been 
under the leadership of the past Chairmen and Chairwomen, Congress 
expects the current FCC to uphold the laws the Congress has passed and 
to enforce the regulations properly adopted by the agency.
  The vast majority of the actions of Chairman Pai have served to 
eliminate competitive protections, to threaten dangerous industry 
consolidation, to make the internet less free and less open, and to 
weaken consumer protections for those most vulnerable.
  Ultimately, we need an FCC Chairman who has the consumers' backs. We 
need an FCC Chairman who is not afraid to use the robust statutory 
authority Congress has given to the FCC to protect consumers. Based on 
his record, I have serious and longstanding concerns about whether 
Chairman Pai really does have the consumers' backs. As a result, I will 
oppose this nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.