releases: https://doyle.house.gov/press-release/doyle-condemns-pai-fcc-%E2%80%9Cprofoundly-negative-effect-our-country%E2%80%9D
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://doyle.house.gov/press-release/doyle-condemns-pai-fcc-%E2%80%9Cprofoundly-negative-effect-our-country%E2%80%9D | Doyle Condemns Pai FCC for Profoundly Negative Effect on Our Country | 2017-10-25 | 2017 | 2017-10 | Democrat | House | PA | Mike Doyle | D000482 | doyle.house.gov | legacy | Washington, DC – Congressman Doyle (D-PA-14) made the following statement earlier today at the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology’s oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission. “First, thank you Madam Chairman for holding this hearing, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us today. Let me just say that I really enjoy our time together here, as I’m sure all of you do, and would encourage the Chairman to hold these get-togethers far more often. “Commissioner Rosenworcel, welcome back. Your work on the Homework Gap has been missed. Commissioner Carr, congratulations on your confirmation. I hope that as you establish your agenda you remember that the guiding principle of the FCC is to act in the public interest. It is standard that I will hold you to as well. “Chairman Pai, many people around the country including myself and many of colleagues are deeply alarmed by your response to President Trump’s threats against the media, and specifically his tweet threatening NBC. In 2014, you wrote in the Wall Street Journal that ‘the government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.’ You took six days to respond to the President’s tweet, and when you did you did not directly address the President’s threat at all or its chilling effects on the media. “While the President and the Administration can dispute the veracity of any story, even ones that are demonstrably true, they cannot attack the free institutions that enable our democracy. As Senator Flake said yesterday, ‘it is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.’ “Besides this issue, the Commission’s agenda under your leadership has already had a profoundly negative effect on our country. From increasing costs on small businesses to driving up the cost of calls to family members in prison and claiming that wireless broadband is competitive even when people in rural American know it’s not, it seems that at every fork in the road you have chosen the path that leads to higher consumer costs, fewer choices, and less innovation. “And it sounds as if the worst is yet to come. News reports suggest that you will unveil plans tomorrow to vastly alter the media landscape in this country, clearing the way for more media consolidation, including the Sinclair-Tribune merger. “Yesterday the Commission eliminated the main studio rule that had ensured for 77 years that local news was gathered and reported locally. What good would a studio and reporters in New York have done for broadcast stations in Houston or Florida after the hurricanes? What good is the local news if it isn’t local? “Other news reports suggest you will announce an order to repeal the FCC’s Open Internet Order around Thanksgiving. Madam Chairman, I sincerely hope, if that is true, that this Committee has a chance to talk to the Commission in advance of a vote on that order. The idea that such a significant order that would affect so much of our economy would be voted on without oversight is unconscionable, and would be a dereliction of this Committee’s duties. If the Chairman is intent to act, I believe that his actions should be done under the scrutiny of Congress and in the light of the public.” Click here for a link to a video of the hearing. Attached is a copy of Commissioner O’Rielly’s response to a Question for the Record from Congressman Doyle. This response was the subject of Congressman Doyle’s line of questioning. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |