ajit pai: i think that's right. another example, rocket fiber, folks in detroit who were dissatisfied with some of the services the incumbent were providing some of those incumbents were not serving parts of detroit that a been written off for decades. they decide we want to do something about it and they run into roadblocks here nuts and -- roadblocks. nuts and bolts stuff like axis to utility poles or pipes. these are the companies necessary to provide a more competitive marketplace in detroit and provide access in some of these parts of the city. it's emblematic of the problem. we want to have a light touch approach because, in terms of access and competition. kim hart: you have said you think rolling back the net neutrality rules will be better , faster, cheaper internet access and help the competition. how will the fcc determined that? is it anecdotal? you have a lot of ways of tracking data and extensive reports on the state competition. how do you think the fcc should continue to track that? is there a need f

ajit pai: absolutely. if you don't do that it is a violation pic in addition if it's an ethic of infringement the ftc has brought authority on an fair and deceptive trade practice authority or unfair authority. the new chairman of the ftc has did before congress inhering in which i testified as well that he is willing to determine to do just that. kim hart: do you intend, do you think the sec and ftc will work closely together to try to figure out if the company is transparent with you guys and therefore compliant with the fcc but the ftc may have considered what that means for consumers and competition landscape come you guys work together on. ajit pai: not only will we, but we are. we have a memorandum of understanding with sign that i spoken to chairman simons about the need to share information on a real-time basis. going forward we will work hand in glove to make sure that consumers are protected, we had a competitive marketplace. kim hart: you talked with reports of investment and infrastructure make

ajit pai: not only will we, but we are. we have a memorandum of understanding that the agencies have signed. going to workre and in glove to make sure consumers are protected. kim hart: you talked with -- about the importance of investment. when we are talking about these large providers and making sure that less regulation will help incentivize them to put more money back into the networks, are you concerned about some of these companies focusing more on the already served areas, and help making sure they can accommodate increasing traffic there rather than putting their money into expanding their infrastructure into the hard-to-reach areas? ajit pai: to me, this is the central problem with internet policy in the united states, there is simply not a business case to serve many parts of the country which are rural. there are not many people per square mile. you get less return on investment in those areas and or , they are lower income so people might not be able to afford services. we need to have serious national effort t

[applause] ajit pai: thanks so much. i really appreciate it. >> washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. deang up this morning, scott will be on to discuss reports of the trump administration withdrawing from the paris climate accord. eric lipton of the new york times will talk about how the pharmaceutical industry is responding to pressure to lower prescription drug prices. we will discuss the investigation into russia and the elections. we will talk about challenges to u.s. retailers. be sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. >> it resulted in a naval victory for the u.s. over japan just six months after pearl harbor. friday, american history tv will be live all day from the macarthur visitor center in virginia for the 75th anniversary of the title of midway. featured speakers in clued the author of "the admirals." book.t carlson with his anthony tulley, the author of "shattered sword." watch the battle of midway 75th anniversary sp

and the thank ajit pai commissioner. and we were -- and we look forward to working with them in the years ahead. we will be hearing from a few stakeholders and friends of our organization. katy maccallum, you are up next. of is executive director digital liberties. >> thank you everyone for being here. this is a red letter day. i want to say first of all, thanks to ajit pai and commissioner o'reilly for everything you will be undertaking for a free market and the internet going forward. i want to be clear that no one is against net neutrality. we are against a government takeover by regulatory fiat without congressional input. that is a major problem. forward, i just want to say that if you are for competition, you are against title to and moving forward, we are looking ahead to an open and transparent process for comments. something revolutionary to be able to comment in this way ahead of time which we were not able to do before. we are very excited about the road ahead of us. thanks. [ applause ] >> thank you. institut

ajit pai does disagree. her thinking is much more with the chairman office, which is back and forth. we do think, we don't need, we're not sure, we found a third way -- it is unclear paired i think that has been strategic, actually. they do not want to do something that controversial at this point. >> the one thing you would say about jessica is she is not a wallflower. she definitely has strong points of view appeared on it neutrality, even when she was a staffer, and there were doing the at&t bellsouth merger, she was one of the people behind the scenes arguing for net neutrality imposed on that merger could i think this is where she would be very strong -- on the merger. i think this is where she would be very strong. >> with five commissioners now on board again, how will this change the dynamic within the commission itself. they have had a small group of three. now they will add two more staff, more opinions, more meetings. will this slowdown the process? >> i think you'll just see a continuation of thi

and both ajit pai and mignon clyburn spoke about the the f.t.c. chairman pai: two years ago, the title 2 order stripped the f.t.c. of jurisdiction over broadband providers but today we nation's premier consumer protection cop back on the beat. again havewill once the authority to take action against internet service anyider that engage in competitive, unfair or deceptive acts. chairman maureen o'hausen recently said, the to protectility consumers and promote competition in the broadband is not new. we have a long established role in preserving the values consumers care about online. or as president obama's first f.t.c. chairman put it restorey, the plan to f.t.c. jurisdiction is good for consumers, the sky isn't falling, consumers will remain protected, and the internet will continue to thrive. so let's be clear. following today's vote, americans will still be able to access the websites they want to visit. they'll still be able to enjoy services they want to enjoy. there will still be cops on the beat guarding a free and open internet. this is the

ajit pai: i agree with my colleagues. i would only add a cautionary tale that it were wires fcc -- thatip is dedicating it requires fcc leadership is dedicated to following the law. but when you look at the magnification -- when you look sionse navigation provide of 1969, i think it requires not just congress to update the act, but also for the agency to administrate the act to update its terms. that requires a strong commitment from fcc leadership. peter sien: this has been "the communicators." rosenworcel, ajit pai, michael o'rielly, and mignon clyburn, thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: you have been watching "the communicators." for the graduating classes all over god's planet, i wish that you graduate into a world of peace, light, and love, but that is not the case. we all live in a fairytale, but i guess the 1% does. this memori

under the chairmanship of ajit pai. we are very delighted for example that when the chairman, when he first put on the chairman's house i guess if you will, that his first action was protecting small businesses. that was the order that extended protections for small firms, for an additional five years in the burdensome requirements embedded within the net neutrality rules. it has been a series of actions. common sense actions that have supported by my members actions and reforms that they have long educated for all agencies. those reforms have more transparency, inclusiveness, using actual economic data and analysis. to guide rulemaking. in actually listening. on a proactive basis to concerns of small business owners and entrepreneurs. to understand what the impact is going to be on their firms as consumers. technology and telecommunications as well as players in the marketplace. as an organization promoted small business and entrepreneurship we are very concerned about the state of small business. they continue to stru

we interviewed the fcc commissioner, ajit pai. he was praising some brand-new qualcomm technology.. that is really exciting for routers and other types of devices. it is 1.3 gigabytes. it is really fast wi-fi connectivity. really, when you think about downloading videos or surfing the web, you can do so much more, so much faster. >> this was developed by qualcomm? >> yes. >> when will it be on the market? >> those devices will be out later this year. >> what else is qualcomm exhibiting this year at ces? >> we talk about snapdragon 800. it is a processor with a powerful graphics assess her -- processor. along with lte. another connectivity solution, as well as multimedia. 7 dot 1 audio. that is the theater behind us. great theater experience for you. you can watch stuff off of your smart phone and do a lot of great rings. -- things. >> what does qualcomm do overall? >> public does a variety of technology. -- qualcomm does a variety of technologies. wi-fi and interactivity. snapdragon processor. we do a lot of things with qualcomm intel. we have another application for reality. we do

i have a great privilege this morning and honor to welcome fcc chairman ajit pai. airman pai has seen our investment firsthand. he has spearheaded a regulatory he has spearheaded a regulatory environment that encourages deploy to invest in and products and services in moral america and close the digital divide. the investment by members has been made possible by chairman --'s regulatory a church regulatory approach to broadband. one of his statements, his philosophy is the fcc is at its --t when it proceeds on the good communications, policy no snow partisan affiliation. we couldn't agree more wholeheartedly with that statement. he knows broadband is critical in modern life, has created a phenomenon he has called the democratization of entrepreneurship. with a grid -- good idea, entrepreneurs anywhere can compete in ways unthinkable a generation ago. because some americans don't have sufficient broadband, he is focused on rural broadband issues near and dear to the heart of our members. we have worked in partnership to make sure we close that divide. he has fought t

fcc chairman ajit pai. mr. pai: thank you so much. it was a great conversation. goes too fast.hank you so much. [applause] you are always so kind. thank you. announcer: get to know the freshman members of the 116th congress monday on washington journal. learn more about the most diverse group of lawmakers in history. >> i am real. i am authentic. >> i am just a small town lawyer from lexington. >> captain of the national guard. served in afghanistan. >> mcdonald's franchisee for 22 years. >> i had this fascination with finding the answers to questions no one else could find. >> i have been a physician for my professional life. >> my dad is a lifelong republican who has never voted democrat. announcer: watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern monday morning. join the discussion. announcer: president trump announced a major shift in u.s. policy towards israel today, tweeting it is time for the united states to fully recognize israel's sovereignty. pompeo,y of state mike who is two days into a four-day trip through the middle east, visited the new u.s. embassy in jerusalem. a

ajit pai: what is happening is not a conversation, it is a dictation. wonderlandlice in paradigm of sentence and then verdict afterward. it goes through the formality of having this process in which it receives public input, but the decision has already been made. they are not open to different points of view. that is one of races of people have been speaking out. and the writing was on the wall when our downloadable security advisory meeting said there are distinct approaches here. the other proposal that the commission ultimately adopted. if these were genuine conversations, they would say here are proposals, the american public wants to tell us what they think. so they said this is our proposal, and here are a couple of paragraphs. it will be terrible for america, but let us know what you think anyway. that is not an open and fair debate. mignon clyburn: it allows the opportunity for people to weigh in. isuess what i am saying here you have, if you do not agree with the original premise, you have an opportunity to weigh in. i think it is a healthy wa

is theguest this week senior republican on the federal communications commission, ajit pai. we also have the associate editor of communications daily. this is the longest we have gone without using the word spectrum. what is your current thinking and how do you see the schedule? is the fcc on time when it comes to the spectrum option? question the intent of consumer demand has increased since i became a commissioner. more critical for the fcc to bring more spectrum. it is unfortunate we have not had a major spectrum option since the bush administration in 2008, i am happy to say we are taking the initial first step with the spectrum which will raise money. we are looking at the broadcast and set of options in the longer-term by which television broadcasters would voluntarily relinquish some spectrum. there is a host of other spectrum options when it comes to license by terms. -- spectrums. there is a tremendous opportunity and what is known as the five gigahertz band. this is an area where the commission has teed up the possibility of having up to 195 megahertz available for

the senate insisted that ajit pai be put on there.e was a been a commissioner thought to preserve your free speech rights. the whole time during that obama -- obamarade administration, he fought and won against all odds. the obama administration had some curveballs. they implemented regulations to take over the internet. as soon as president trump came into office, president trump asked the g5 to liberate the internet and give it back to you. [applause] courageous person that i know. he has received countless death threats, his property has been family and aas a family that has been abused in different ways. -- as sheepeep i thank you fori editing your done. the second vice president of the national rifle association. -- we have something we would like to tell you about. the second vice president of the national rifle association. [applause] >> hello cpac. it is sponsored by the national rifle association. in honor of legendary humanitarian extraordinary actor nra.eloved person of the [applause] award, which is not given every year, o

[applause] >> the chair of the fcc, ajit pai, was one of the featured speakers at the national rivera institute ideas summit. he spoke for about half an hour. >> please welcome charles c w cook and the fcc chairman, ajit pai. >> thank you for joining us. >> great to be with you. keep it clean. >>

fcc chairman ajit pai. mr. pai: thank you so much. it was a great conversation. goes too fast. thank you so much. [applause] you are always so kind. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> asked not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. these people who knocked buildings down will hear all of us soon. >> c-span's newest book, "the president's." noted historians rank the best and worst chief executives. true stories gathered by interviews from presidential historians. his -- explore the life events that shaped our leaders, challenges they faced. will be the presidents , but you canril 23 order your copy as an e-book or hard copy today. >> congress is in recess this week. house speaker nancy pelosi has announced that next week the house will vote on an override of president terms veto of the congressional resolution that bordererminate his secu

. >> tonight on the communicators, outgoing chair of the fcc, i jide by, on the -- ajit pai. >> i do think time has come for congress to put on the printed page those open internet protections that all of us can agree on. no throttling, no prioritization, transparency. these are basic principles we can all agree on but, again, it is up to elected officials and the next congress. i hope we will not see a reprieve of what we saw in 2017 and 2018. >> new york governor andrew cuomo delivered his annual state of the state address in albany. the governor spoke about the to covid-19 and called on the state to provide more funding. his current term and sin january, 20 -- his current term ends in january, 2023. gov. cuomo: good morning to all. please welcome the lieutenant governor. the attorney general, and the leader andrea stewart cousins, speaker carl heastie, assembly minority leader who are all joining us electronically in this special year. in this special year. happy new year to all. i believe it is with near universal relief that 2020 has comean

smith: ajit pai is a superb fellow, a great man.certainly misunderstood and -- understood,inly and it is paying off now, the irreplaceable importance of broadcasting in the firmament of telecommunication to the american people. i had planned to ask him about things like ownership restrictions on broadcasting, which does not apply to social media platforms or other entrants into telecommunication. only broadcasting is kept intentionally small. sometimes we need scale to be able to compete. we do need scale to compete with these new entrants in communications. but, there a lot of issues. issues. are a lot of we were going to talk about the repack of the spectrum. the spectrum repack after the sale of a whole bunch of our broadcast spectrum. where people need to rescan their television sets. we are literally in the last phase of that. it is supposed be over by this summer. but phase 10, which is on the horizon, already, chairman pai has said we will give you more flexibility if this virus gets in the way of deadlines. we will give you

[applause] >> the chair of the fcc, ajit pai, was one of the featured speakers at the national rivera institute ideas summit. he spoke for about half an hour. >> please welcome charles c w cook and the fcc chairman, ajit pai. >> thank you for joining us. >> great to be with you. keep it clean. >> i will. [laughter] maybe we can stop by asking a basic question. what is the fcc? the federal communications commission is the nation's premier communications regulation agency. ago.re created 85 years essentially, it's enabling americans to be able to benefit from communications technology, whether it's more traditional, like radio, tv, and telephone, or the modern ones, satellite, internet, and wireless. matching the operation to the american consumer with the technological innovations on cap, that's what our core mission is. >> what was the mission in 1934? >> it changed a little bit. back then, we were created to regulate the airwaves, broadcast tv and radio airwaves, the spectrum being used. in addition, regulating the telephone monopoly. there's a list of regulations that congress charg

chair ajit pai is debating giving more control over how broadband is distributed. live coverage thursday at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. the house back for legislative business at 4:30 eastern with work on five measures, include one to increase protection for community religious centers. later in the week, legislation requiring the treasury secretary to report to congress on assets held by top iranian leaders. in the senate, votes on three more federal trump appeals court ominees. later in the week they'll consider nominees for the fifth circuit. you can watch live coverage of the house here on c-span and the senate on c-span2. next, today's white house briefing from less than an hour ago with press secretary sarah sanders.

our guest this week is the outgoing chair of the fcc, ajit pai.e have about 10 minutes left in our interview. can you opine a little bit on the changes in media in the last four years? i know we talk about this on a regular basis and people are cutting the cord. are people watching broadcast media, subscribing to cable? there are streaming services now. how would you describe this landscape? chairman pai: i think from a consumer perspective, the landscape is richer than ever, in the sense that consumers have a choice not only in the kind of content they want to watch, but also the platform in which they want to watch it. it's hard to remember because of the times we live in, but i remember as a kid when in rural kansas my options were three broadcast channels. if the satellite dish was positioned in a certain way, maybe a few channels over that network. how different it is now. now, my kids, for example, when they say we want to watch tv, they could mean broadcast tv. but more likely they might mean, , hey, dad, can you put up a show on netflix? "

isep high -- ajit pai the chairman of the fcc.video clip] >> we are not living in some digital dystopia. perhaps, the internet is one thing we can agree in american society has been a stunning success. but this solution has not worked. the main complaint consumers have about the internet is not and has never been that their internet service provider is blocking access to content, it is that they do not have access at all or not enough competition. these regulations have ironically taken us in the opposite direction from these consumer preferences. under title ii, investment in high-speed networks has declined by billions of dollars. notably, this is the first time that such investment has declined outside of a recession in the internet era. when there is less investment, that means fewer of next generation's networks are built. that means less access and less competitions, less jobs for americans building those networks, and more americans are stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. with that background, what do you say?

commissioner pai. ajit varadaraj pai: chairman flake, ranking member franken, members of the subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing today. it's a privilege to appear alongside you along our distinguished colleagues with the federal trade commission. and thank you as well for giving me opportunity to testify about the federal communications commission's opportunity to -- commission's proposal to selectively regulate internet privacy. every day, millions of americans enjoy the freedom that the internet provides. one reason is the united state'' historic -- regulation when it comes to internet privacy. start-ups haven't had to hire an attorney to navigate complex federal rules, and entrepreneurs have been free to invent and discover new ways to monetize their services without fear of government standing in the way of profitability. as the nation's preeminent federal agency on privacy issues, the federal commission deserves credit. for two decades, it has applied a unified approach to all online actor

[applause] ♪ >> ajit pai, the chairman of the federal communications commission thought he was goingdeliver a speech today. you probably alrekn

ajit pai is the name. we will go to kenneth from burning him, alabama. democrats line. caller: yes. my name is kenneth. trump.oud of president he inspired me. seeing things change, i like that. i'm glad that north korea offered to meet with president trump. probablyt the show was -- i like the change. i don't like to hear negative things about why some americans becauseis is a set of thate cable tv, but really is a stepping stone for us to make changes as a world. peace. body and world i am loving that. host: let's go next to david in pennsylvania. -- actually in california. caller: i would like to bring up -- i have been watching all day. something people have noticed -- if thistrump leads to something good, possibly donald trump and kim jong-un and president moon in south korea, this could be a nobel peace prize. i would argue that president obama didn't do as much with what potentially could be happening with the summit. i saw a few other callers discussing the media. i have to agree with them on both sides. us as the public, when we have news, i would have to agree that they are

fcc chairman ajit pai. mr. pai: thank you so much. it was a great conversation. goes too fast. thank you so much. [applause] you are always so kind. thank you. >> coming up live friday at 12:30 on c-span, the information technology and innovative foundation with a discussion about the u.s. postal service with e-commerce and the future of package delivery. on c-span2 at 9:00 a.m. eastern, a forum on the pro-israel lobby posted by the washington report on middle east affairs and the institute for research, middle eastern policy. on c-span3 at nine: 30, the brookings institution looks as a medical bills and policy proposals to address the problem. sunday night on afterwards, historian victor davis hanson talks about his book the case for trump which looks at the campaign, election, and presidency of donald trump. he is interviewed by dave brat. >> a conundrum and they anticipated their demography by .bout 50 years, got ahead of it even if they had the demography they wanted they are not certain how to vote people to vote -- monolithically based on their skin color. they are in a d

without further ado, the chairman of the fcc, ajit pai,

this week on "the communicators" is the senior republican on the federal communications commission, ajit pai. commissioner pai, this is the week that the net neutrality decision came down and part of your response to this -- i will read it to our audience and have you expand a little bit. >> that is my statement. first, peter, thanks for having me back. my statement sigfi

jesse: i hope you will all join me in thanking chairman ajit pai. ajit: thank you. this was great. thanks a lot. [applause] i do want to ask our next guest about tax cuts. without further ado, the man who replaced john boehner and moved ,is seat decidedly to the right warren davidson, congressman from ohio. [applause] host: i want you to confront the people in this room who you killed passing tax cuts. [laughter] host: the rhetoric out there, apparently the fcc has killed people because of net neutrality. you have killed people because of tax cuts. peoplesident has killed by getting elected. a lot of people have died. rep. davidson: i heard it was armageddon. also, it it was a five-alarm fire. we have to react. i don't know who is suffering under tax reform. isan't find anyone who suffering. i know a few friends who have a lot of property on long island who have done really well because they have high taxes in their state. will pay more taxes. there is a very highest income racquets owning some really expensive property. things are going pretty well for them. host: they will be fin

sat downhair ajit pai for a conversation about energy, technology, and government. conservative blogger erick erickson organized the conference. >> i have two guess. i get to take a break for a little bit and let jesse blumenthal have a conversation with the chairman of the fcc, who is probably one of the most hated men in washington, but should be applauded by everyone here for helping make the free market work when it comes to telecommunications in this century. i'm glad to have someone who enforced the free market. does supports the free market as chairman of the fcc. without further ado, the chairman of the fcc, ajit pai, and jesse blumenthal. [applause] >> hey, how are you doing? >> good. >> hey. thanks. jesse: mr. chairman, thank you so much for joining us. you wanted to say a few things before we got started. you have some thoughts on technology and telecommunications. we are going to let you sort of start the conversation and i have some follow-up questions for you. ajit: it's going to be a 15 minute speech on the intricacy of the fun regulations going back

on c-span, we will bring addressestrump as he attendees with kellyanne conway and fcc chair ajit pai. can join live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. addresses attendees with kellyanne conway eastern on c-span. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day eastern on c-span. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. friday morning, eastern the goldwater institute discusses right to try medication that would allow terminally ill patients to obtain experimental drugs not approved by the fda. reform and about tax drug availability. vice president of the national education association on the recent school shootings and president trump's proposal to arm school staff as a way to prevent school shootings. washington journal live 7:00 a.m. eastern friday morning. join the discussion. the nation's governors are in washington dc this weekend, and friday, ohio governor john kasich, john hickenlooper the 'n washington dc this weekend, and bill walker will unveil their improving plan for the nation's health care system. you can watch live at chillic

was here -- chairman achieved by -- ajit pai was here, he sadi -- said there was no progress. can i get your opinion on that? >> yes, ma'am. when we think about the 24 gigahertz part of the electromagnetic spectrum, depending on the decibel level, it will definitely bleed over to the 23.6 gigahertz part of the spectrum. there is risk of air that when it leads over, some of the sensors in space that are looking at the earth to characterize water vapor and energy of that water vapor, some of that data could be interfered with, corrupted. i want to be really clear, this was a study done by nasa on behalf of noah. nasa did not have a dog in this fight, other than having great scientist's and engineers to do this analysis. we do have one or two missions that use that part of the spectrum, but nothing compared to what no a has for weather prediction. this is a weather prediction effort, and i can tell you that depending on the decibel level and that 23 point six gigahertz, we could lose significant data. depending on that level, we could lose up to 70% of that data. and if that were

we are grateful to be joined by fcc chairman ajit pai and the deputy chairman of agriculture. thank you very much. tell sonny hello. he's doing a tremendous job. really tremendous. secure 5g networks will absolutely be a vital link to america's prosperity and national security in the 21st century. 5g will be as much as 100 times faster than the current 4g cellular networks. it will transform the way our citizens work, learn, communicate, and travel. it will make american farms more productive, manufacturing more competitive, and health care better and more accessible. basically it covers almost everything. pretty amazing. just as 4g networks paved the way for smart phones and all the exciting breakthroughs that make possible so many things, this will be more secure and resilient. 5g networks will also create astonishing and thrilling new opportunities for our people, opportunities that we never even thought we had a possibility of looking at. we cannot allow any other country to out-compete the united states in this possible industry of the future. we are leading by so much in

fcc chair,r from ajit pai who spoke about the regula o

peter: i was going to ask what your relationship was like with chairman ajit pai. christopher: i don't have a relationship. howard: have you tried? christopher: i have not personally, but people i've worked with may have tried. peter: what about democratic congress? do they hear your message and duly have payroll they could play in a potential merger? christopher: i think they did hear our message. i think at the hearing last week, not only did the democrats hear the message, but republicans. a cell phone is neither a democrat or a republican cell phone. and what does merger will do is raise prices. jobs.l destroy and people will not have -- for instance, 46 million rural americans will not have, according to numbers, will not have the ability to get 5g service after this murder. how much affect of this congress have on the merging policy? christopher: that remains to be seen, i guess. whether they can convince the fcc to turn down this merger, i don't know. howard: the wireless component of at&t has a record on unionization. what companies are you happiest with an

. >> we recently had the current chair of the f.c.c., ajit pai on this program. we asked him the question. i want you to hear the question his answer and get your response. >> philosophically as we get more and more commingled with networks and cable companies and google facebook, et cetera et cetera, at what point is the f.c.c. -- pardon me -- but irrelevant to our media world? >> so this is one of the things that i've consistently said. for my first days on the commission back in 2012, we need to get the denominator right. what i mean by that is figuring out the full scope of competition in every one of these marketplaces. i think if you were to tell the average person under 25 or 30 for example, yes, the f.c.c. considers the market marketplace for information to be solely newspapers, broadcast tv stations, broadcast radio stations, they would look at you as if, have you not heard of this thing called the internet? technically speaking our rules don't take into account some of the effects of the internet. that's part of the reason why we want to make sure we ha

chairman ajit pai then thought to preserve your free-speech rights. time during that obama administration, he fought and won against all odds. througha administration some curveballs and they implemented these regulations to take over the internet. as soon as president trump came into office, president trump asked ajit pai to liberate the internet and give it back to you. [applause] is the most courageous, horrific person that i know. he has written -- the most courageous person that i know. his property is been invaded by the george soros crowd, he has a family and his family has been abused in different ways. , thank you sopai much for everything you have done. i'm going to be joined on stage by the chairman of the american conservative union and the second vice president of the national rifle association. we have something we would like to tell you about. the second vice president of the national rifle association. [applause] >> hello cpac. the purge under fire award is sponsored by the rifle association in honor of legendary humanitarian extraordi

congress these to clean up the pai that the fcc chair ajit is making." right,s absolutely giving preferential treatment to some providers over others like you described, and the fcc ignored that history that led their predecessors to create enforce thesed principles, these protections, over the last almost 15 years. i dispute the notion that there is a long history of any type of discriminatory action. they were literally three or four examples cited when the sec adopted the rules in 2015 -- the fcc adopted the rules in 2015. i think many people are beginning to realize the greatest threat of discrimination comes from the so-called edge providers. the googles, twitters, facebooks. twitter, for example commercially took down in ad for congresswoman marsha blackburn that was pro-life. there's an increasing the giantn that are more likely to discriminate because of their -- and theirthese dominance than these internet service providers. and i was that these organizations and those that are concerned about net neutrality with the internet service providers w

chairslen: that was fcc ajit pai from earlier this week. our discussion on the "the communicators" is about his proposal. joining us is jeffrey eisenach. and chris lewis, vice president of public knowledge, the consumer group. what is your take on what the chairman proposed earlier this week? christopher lewis: we think that the rule that we got in 2015 is working. they are wildly popular. the overwhelming majority of americans love to have clear rules of the road. we are concerned that he has gone down a path to review and potentially even repeal some or all of those roles. peter slen: why do you think those rules are necessary? internet hass the existed, it has been grounded on the principle of net neutrality. i think thatewis: is true. if you look at the history of the internet, from the 1990's, the clinton era when we had dial-up internet, on through the 2000 when the commission really started to look at the concept of net neutrality, there has been broad support for the idea that we need to protect and open internet or the concept of n

what did you plan -- ajit pai, the chairman of the fcc. what did you plan to ask him? superb fellow and you certainly understood -- misunderstood. it is paying off now, the airplay civil importance of broadcasting in the firmament of telik medications for the american people -- the firmament of telecommunications. thingsto ask him about like ownership restrictions on broadcasting, which does not apply to social media or other entrance. only broadcasting is kept intentionally small. and sometimes we need scale to compete with new entrants in communications. but there a lot of issues. we were going to talk about the repack of the spectrum. the spectrum repack after the sale of a whole bunch of our broadcast spectrum. where people need to rescan their television sets. we are literally in the last phase of that. it is supposed be over by this summer. on the0, which is , chairman paidy has said we will give you more flex ability if this virus gets in a way of deadlines. they have in real help and a understanding as we have transitioned into this new world of reduced spectru

. >> please welcome charles c w cook and the fcc chairman, ajit pai. >> thank you for joining us. >> great to be with you. keep it clean. >> i will. [laughter] maybe we can stop by asking a basic question. what is the fcc? the federal communications commission is the nation's premier communications regulation agency. ago.re created 85 years essentially, it's enag

. >> chris, we will begin with you, last week, ajit pai questioned whether or not there should be media ownership rules at all, given the landscape of the media marketplace. is this an issue that may come up in the fcc or congress? chris, emily, and leah. >> i feel in terms of media, the more likely thing congress will move on, especially because senator cantwell,, is figurin out rules how social media platforms and news companies should interact, or we should have some sort of model like australia, where we pay what we use, or a should be advertising budgets given the state of media, where we have lost tens of thousands of jobs this year. >> i don't think most democrats would agree with what he was saying about media ownership rules. i think the fcc is going to have to deal with this. jeffrey starks has been focused on diversity in media ownership. i think that is the route we will see over the next couple of years. >> the only thing i would note is next week, the supreme court is set to hear that case. depending on how the supreme court decides the case, it could come up in congress.

everyone seems to be watching the fcc chairman ajit pai. he seems to be facing more pressure, given that the cut senate has to hold a big local vote, which is unheard of for an fcc nominee. normally, they just pass by unanimous consent in a bigger package, but that was really interesting before the august recess. democrats played hardball and they said they would not include him in a batch of nominees. senate leaders are trying to figure out when they can actually schedule a public floor vote for the chairman. it's going to be one of those things where democrats have a chance to talk about all the issues that bothered them. if he's not confirmed by the end of the year, he has to leave the commission, too. the votes heas needs, but it will be a very messy, public process. is the fcc going to follow their agenda and act on net neutrality? they expect them to act by the december meeting. peter: how is that going to work? trying to are schedule a vote before the columbus day restates -- recess. they are not sure when they can't quite do that, b

announcedan ajit pai the agency will want to roll back obama era net neutrality rules that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. ofblasted the role heavy-handed utility style religion of the internet opposed -- proposed by jenna -- by democrats. we would abandon this failed returns to the long-standing consensus that served customers well. airing our companion network, mostn2, we are showing the recent open meeting of the fcc commissioners. you can see the entire meeting online at c-span.org. on c-span, former vice president joe biden and ohio governor john kasich is that deal of research and in the trump area -- partisanship in the trump era. >> to some degree, the politics of the day is a manifestation of the politics that have been run for a long time. you were on the committee and you saw how raucous and how they were. we went through an impeachment and then we went through the republican revolution and we saw jim wright be driven out and foley be driven out. we saw the republicans when the house for the first time in 40 years. democrats said no, you never