House Oversight Committee Grills Wheeler

If the first of this week's three Hill hearings on the FCC's network neutrality decision is any indication, they will divide along political lines, with Republicans hammering the process and the result, and Democrats defending it.

In an almost-three-hour grilling, Wheeler, sporting a green tie for St. Patrick’s Day and a steely eye to meet the gaze of troubled Republicans, defended the decision, which he called an independent one, that the President "piled on" rather than directed, along with members for Congress and the public.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) set the tone of the hearing by asking whether the chairman had given the White House a copy of the draft order before the final vote. Wheeler said no.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.