The chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee has invoked Sen. Barack Obama to urge the Federal Communications Commission to hold off on answering President Barack Obama's call for Title II reclassification of Internet access.
In a letter to Wheeler Monday (Feb. 23), who last week declined to testify at an upcoming, Feb. 25 hearing in the committee on the relationship between the White House and the FCC's Title II-based draft order, committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked the chairman to reconsider the invitation to testify. Chaffetz also said he was still looking for copies of e-mails the committee had asked for by Feb. 6 as part of its investigation into that relationship.
Chaffetz echoed calls earlier in the day by FCC Republicans Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly for the chairman to delay the planned Feb. 26 vote on the new rules and publish the language of the draft to give the public more time to weigh in (Wheeler had countered that call by the minority commissioners in a Tweet, saying that with 4 million-plus comments on new network-neutrality rules, it was time to act).
Chaffetz pointed out that back in 2007, then Senator Obama had asked then FCC chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, to hold off on a vote on proposed media ownership rule changes until he had put the changes out in a public notice. Chaffetz noted that in a letter to Martin, Sen. Obama had said, "The commission has the responsibility to defend any new proposal in public discourse and debate." Chaffetz also pointed out that the senator co-sponsored a bill to block a commission vote on the rulemaking "pursuant to a 90-day comment period."
Martin responded by releasing the changes and opened a four-week comment period, Chaffetz pointed out, but only after it had conducted many public hearings and published the changes and provided for comment, he said.
What is sauce for the senator is sauce for the President, Chaffetz suggested. "The current drafting and scheduled vote on net-neutrality rules has afforded none of these opportunities for public airing and only raised concerns regarding the process," Chaffetz said.
