[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 157 (Monday, October 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6245-S6246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Las Vegas Mass Shooting

  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I wish to begin by offering my 
condolences to the victims of the massacre in Las Vegas last night and 
to their loved ones. I am heartsick for the residents of Las Vegas and 
everyone around the country who woke up to the horrendous news of last 
night's attack and who is worried sick about whether their family 
members, friends, and neighbors are OK.
  Thoughts and prayers are good, but they are simply not enough. 
Thoughts and prayers are not enough when more moms and dads will bury 
their children this week. Thoughts and prayers are not enough when sons 
and daughters will be forced to grow up without their parents.
  Attacks like the one last night have happened all too often in 
America. Enough is enough. We have to have a conversation about how to 
stop gun violence in America, and we need to have that conversation 
right now.
  Madam President, I want to take some time to discuss the vote we will 
be taking shortly on the nomination of Ajit Pai to serve as the Chair 
of the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC.
  One thing that last night showed us is the importance of connections. 
Every day, moms and dads pick up their phones to check in on their 
kids, students go online to do research on homework assignments, and 
families sit together to watch the newest hit television show or movie. 
It is just a fact--media and telecommunications services play a vital 
role in helping American households connect with their loved ones, 
communities, and the world around them.
  The FCC makes sure those services are available and accessible to all 
Americans, whether they live in a rural community or in a large city--
at least that is what the FCC is supposed to do. There are a lot of 
powerful companies that want to change that picture, companies that 
want to change the rules so they can line the pockets of their 
corporate executives and their wealthy investors. Those powerful 
companies have launched an all-out assault on every branch of our 
government with only one goal: to make sure the government works for 
them and for their buddies. If it leaves everyone else in the dirt, 
they don't much care.
  As powerful companies know, it is good to have friends on the inside, 
and they have invested a lot of money in making friends. Giant 
corporations have spent unlimited amounts of money to elect politicians 
who will promote their views and to flood Congress with lobbyists who 
will work around the clock to destroy laws and rules that the industry 
doesn't like and to reshape those laws to suit corporate interests. But 
electing politicians and inflating Congress with lobbyists isn't 
enough. Their Republican buddies in Congress can only do so much. 
Powerful corporations need weak agencies that will not hold them 
accountable, so they work to fill those agencies with their allies--
friends who can undo the rules that giant corporations don't like, 
friends who will not go after those companies when they throw the rules 
out the window to make an extra buck.

  The FCC is one of the agencies that have been on their hit list for a 
long time, and now they see their opportunity to execute a corporate 
takeover of the FCC. They started at the top with Ajit Pai, President 
Trump's pick to chair the FCC.
  Since his appointment as Chair of the FCC, Chairman Pai has worked at 
breakneck speed to transform the FCC from an agency that works in the 
public interest to a big business support group.
  Chairman Pai started with net neutrality protections--rules that help 
keep the internet free and open by preventing giant broadband companies 
from discriminating against certain internet users and turning the 
internet into another service that caters to those who can pay top 
dollar. Like his big broadband buddies, Chairman Pai

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opposes net neutrality. Once President Trump was elected, Chairman Pai 
declared that the days of net neutrality protections were numbered, and 
now he is working hard to reverse those rules.
  Chairman Pai has more items on his agenda. He is working to weaken 
the FCC's Lifeline Program, which helps low-income households across 
the country pay for phone and broadband service. Chairman Pai has also 
halted the FCC's efforts to demand some accountability from private 
prison phone companies that charge sky-high rates to prisoners and 
their loved ones. Chairman Pai thinks it is just fine for private 
companies to make it harder for prisoners to stay connected to their 
families and their communities by charging exorbitant phone fees.
  Chairman Pai defends killing these strong, public-centered rules by 
repeating a version of the same old, tired refrain that we have heard 
over and over from industry: Government should stay out of the way and 
let big corporations do as they please because when big corporations 
make lots of profits, that benefits everyone. Yeah, right. That worn-
out theory has been disproved time and time again. Americans know that 
when government is asleep at the wheel and big companies get to make 
the rules, those giant companies make out like bandits, while everyone 
else gets stuck with the bill.
  That is not all. When government doesn't do its job, when it fails to 
protect the public interest, the big guys can grow even larger and more 
powerful and can translate greater economic power into greater 
political power, and that is where it gets very scary. Just look at 
Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair is the largest television station 
owner in America, and it has made a name for itself by aggressively 
promoting ultraconservative views. It is infamous for forcing its 
stations to regularly run rightwing segments, and it melds its radical 
ideology with a take-no-prisoners profit-making mission, finding more 
and more creative ways to reduce news coverage and instead promote its 
sponsors' products.
  Being the biggest isn't enough for Sinclair--it wants to become even 
more powerful, so it has put in a bid to purchase Tribune Broadcasting, 
another large television station owner. If government regulatories 
don't stop the merger, Sinclair would have access to over 70 percent of 
American households. If the alarm bells haven't already gone off, this 
is where they should start ringing like crazy.
  During the Presidential campaign, Sinclair was a huge supporter of 
then-Candidate Trump. It used its power in local television markets to 
spread slanted, pro-Trump news stories. Jared Kushner, President 
Trump's son-in-law, even bragged about reaching a deal with Sinclair to 
get more positive news media coverage of Trump.
  The day before Trump's inauguration, Sinclair's chairman met with 
Pai--who was then an FCC Commissioner but who was expected to be 
promoted to Chairman--he met with him to urge him to change the rules 
so Sinclair can grow even more powerful. When President Trump nominated 
Pai to chair the FCC, Sinclair got exactly what it wanted: Chairman Pai 
immediately got to work changing the rules so it would be easier for 
Sinclair to acquire Tribune.
  Local media is sacred to many Americans. It is where we catch up on 
what is happening in our communities from people who know and care 
about our communities. A merger between Sinclair and Tribune would 
allow Sinclair to change that dynamic. With more local programming 
coming from a centralized source, there would be less information and 
less diversity of ideas in local reporting. That kind of concentrated 
power is bad for competition, and it is worse for democracy. Whether 
the Sinclair agenda is on the political right or the political left, no 
single, centralized corporation should control access to local 
programming for so many households.
  We need a strong Chair at the FCC, a Chair who understands that the 
government's role is to work for American families and to hold giant 
corporations accountable. We do not need a Chair at the FCC who is 
working for the most powerful communications corporations in this 
country. That is why I will vote no on the nomination of Chairman Pai 
to be Chairman of the FCC.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.