Pai’s Panache

We keep getting little glimpses of Ajit Pai’s style as FCC chairman. On Friday, he responded to letter from House Commerce Dems Frank Pallone (NJ) and Mike Doyle (PA) in which the lawmakers asked him to commit to working with colleagues in a bipartisan fashion and not retaliating against any civil servants based on their analysis or work under previous FCC leadership. In his reply, Pai assured the congressmen that he will do his best to hear all points of view and that staff will be treated fairly. He ended each letter with a handwritten, personal postscript. He told Doyle he’s excited to work with him “notwithstanding your Steelers’ decisive playoff victory over my woebegone Chiefs.” For Pallone, he said he was excited to collaborate with the Commerce committee ranking member and his staff, “including David Goldman, one of the best in the business!” An adviser to former FCC commish Jessica Rosenworcel, Goldman has served as chief telecom counsel for the committee’s Democratic staff since January 2015. On Monday, Pai announced another process reform measure, pledging that his office will share with every Commissioner’s office every item that will be considered at an open meeting before anyone discusses the content of those items publicly or the FCC releases the text of those documents. “During the past few years, the Chairman’s Office often briefed the press or published a blog about matters to be voted upon at the FCC’s monthly meetings before sharing those matters with Commissioners,” Pai said. “As a Commissioner, I thought that actions like these were inappropriate and disrespectful of other Commissioners.” He still has faced criticism from the FCC’s lone Democrat, with Mignon Clyburntaking him to task for a rescinding about a dozen actions and reports Friday that were completed under Tom Wheeler, including closing an inquiry into zero-rating practices. Pallone is not a fan of a decision issued during Friday’s deregulation flurry. He issued a statement Monday criticizing the move to limit nine companies’ involvement in the Lifeline program ( CFX , 2/6). “In making this decision, the FCC’s order relies on then-Commissioner Ajit Pai’s own testimony before our Committee last year, but at that same hearing he admitted that the FCC had not yet found any evidence of fraud in the Lifeline program,” Pallone said, urging the FCC to reconsider the action.