FCC Comms criticized

The two Republican commissioners in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been accused of withholding documents that show they acted in cahoots with congressional Republicans in trying to kill net neutrality rules.

Ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Elijah Cummings, has sent a letter [PDF] to Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly complaining that "neither of you has produced a single responsive document to date." Cummings said their refusal to do so "obstructs our investigation, and it prevents the Committee from having a complete or accurate understanding of the circumstances surrounding this rulemaking." He even put out a press release on it.

Both Pai and O'Rielly are suspected of providing details over the proposed net neutrality rules to Congressional leaders and working with them to campaign against their introduction. There were certainly a significant number of suspicious coincidences.

The rules – known as the Open Internet Order – were approved by the FCC in February 2015 and came into effect that June. They were upheld by the DC courts a year later. ®