The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced Friday a new investigation to determine what, if any, influence the White House had in shaping the FCC’s aggressive net neutrality proposal unveiled earlier this week.
“[R]eports indicate that views expressed by the White House potentially had an improper influence on the development of the draft Open Internet Order circulated internally at the [FCC Thursday],” Utah Republican and committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz wrote in a letter to Wheeler Friday. (RELATED: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Finally Reveals His Net Neutrality Plan)
“I am interested in hearing from the FCC on this matter, in particular how the FCC communicated with the White House and other executive branch agencies.”
Since Wheeler announced his intention to use Communications Act Title II authority to ban paid prioritization, content blocking and traffic throttling for wired and wireless Internet service providers earlier this week, critics and proponents alike have noted its virtually identical resemblance to the net neutrality plan called for by President Obama last November. (RELATED: Obama Announces Support For Net Neutrality)
Chaffetz goes on to direct Wheeler to retain documentation of all communications between the FCC, the White House and any other executive branch agencies related to net neutrality, so that they might be produced to the committee to determine if the White House improperly influenced the independent regulatory agency.
Federal Communications Commission Special Counsel Gigi Sohn on Friday said that Wheeler was leaning toward Title II before the president’s comments, and that they served only to reinforce his resolve.
“I think what the president’s statement did was rather than force the president’s hand was give him cover to do something that he already was thinking about doing,” Sohn said on CSPAN Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Chaffetz gave Wheeler until Feb. 20 to produce the documents and make available any staff with knowledgeable testimony on the issue. The FCC is scheduled to vote on Wheeler’s proposal on Feb. 26.
Despite outcries from Republican FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly, who are opposed to the plan, a draft of Wheeler’s proposal will not be made public until after the commission votes on it later this month, when it is expected to pass the democratically controlled commission. (RELATED: Republican FCC Commissioner Slams ‘Obama’s 332-Page Plan To Regulate The Internet’)
