A handful of Democratic senators have asked FCC chair Ajit Pai to put the new T-Mobile-Sprint conditions offered up this week out for public comment before voting on the deal.  

Pai said this week that the conditions, including spinning off Boost Mobile, holding down prices and pledging 5G buildouts, made the deal in the public interest and he planned to circulate an order approving it, which his fellow Republican commissioners, comprising a majority, indicated they would support. 

In the letter, the senators, who opposed the deal as previously constituted, said they still oppose it and asked both the FCC and Justice Department to reject it.  

Related: FCC Poised to OK T-Mobile-Sprint Merger

They cited the behavioral conditions, but made no mention of the Boost spin-off. 

They said the conditions are mostly unrelated to merger-specific harms and thus the type of condition the chairman has criticized in the past. They also said they were worried about the process and that the conditions appeared without public input or "visibility." 

As a result, they said, the FCC should give the public 30 days to weigh in on the conditions, though they did not need that long to say they don't think they make the deal palatable.  

Signing on to the letter were Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (both D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). 

Democratic senators hammered FCC Chairman Ajit Pai over his decision to rescind a report on the successes of the FCC's E-rate program, one of several actions late in his predecessor's tenure (Jan. 18, two days before FCC

Chairman Tom Wheeler's exit) that the new chairman rolled back in his first days in office, signaling it did not reflect the official views of the agency.

The topic of E-rate and the report is likely to come up in Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing with Pai and the other commissioners.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who was the author of the E-rate program--a subsidy for advanced telecom to schools and libraries--as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act--led a group of a dozen senators who said they were worried about what the report's pullback meant for the future of the program.

"Your actions threaten to roll back progress made in all of these states and disrupt schools and libraries’ carefully planned multi-year budgets," they wrote. "Accordingly, we call on you to guarantee that this treasured program will not be undermined in any way under your watch.”

They cited the benefits of the program--increasing the number of students connected to the 'net and expanding funding for Wi-Fi nets, helping low-income and rural communities--Pai has signaled that rural broadband access will be a priority at the new commission.

"Your decision to retract these facts and eliminate the report is worrying to us, who support this vital program," they said.

Also signing on to the letter were Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeffery Merkley (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.)

An FCC official said on background that the chairman continues to support the E-rate program and continued investment in next gen tech for students and library patrons, but that the report was rescinded because it was released without notifying the commissioners and without coordinating it with the appropriate staffers.

He said the rescission was because the report reflected the views of its drafter, rather than of the agency.

The report remains available on the FCC Web site.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Corey Booker (D-N.J.) are leading more than a dozen senators (all Dems except independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont) calling on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to reverse his decision to withdraw Lifeline broadband subsidy authorizations from nine companies.

Pai said the decision was due to 1) procedural errors, 2) because they were issued in the waning hours of the previous Administration, something Republicans warned against, 3) and because he suggested the FCC needed to hit the pause button on expanding the low-income subsidy program until it got a better process for monitoring for waste, fraud and abuse.

The senators, who also included Al Franken of Minnesota, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon, said they were deeply troubled by the action.

Related: Ex-Wheeler Aide Sohn Slams Pai for Lifeline Decision

They said the chairman was undermining the program, making it more difficult for low income residents to afford critical communications services, and appearing to run counter to his pledge in the first days of his chairmanship to make closing the digital divide a priority under his watch.

The senators said that to "abruptly revoke" the authorizations only weeks after they had been granted was "unfairly punishing" low-income consumers.

Pai had pointed out in a blog post that eight of the nine customers had no customers so far, so the impact should not be great, and that there were still some 900 companies authorized and providing the subsidies.

The senators pointed out that the customers of at least one of the nine would have to be disconnected.

Evoking Sec. 706 of the Communications Act, they said that the FCC has an obligation to ensure “consumers in all regions of the country, including low-income consumers” have access to “advanced telecommunications services,” and asked him to reconsider the decision.

”Chairman Pai shares the Senators’ commitment to closing the digital divide and believes that the Lifeline program can play an important role in helping to achieve that objective," said a Pai spokesman. "The Wireline Competition Bureau’s decision last week did not have any impact on over 99% of the companies in the program, and eight of the nine companies affected did not have any Lifeline customers.

"These nine companies’ applications were rushed out the door in the final days of the last Administration through an improper process. Some of these companies did not follow Commission rules requiring consultation with Tribes. The Bureau granted some applications without waiting for the 30-day public comment period set forth in our rules to close. And there was inadequate attention paid to whether necessary safeguards were in place to prevent the waste, fraud, and abuse that has plagued the program. For all these reasons, it was important for these nine companies’ applications to receive additional review.”