KS-Raised FCC Commissioner Channels The Cowardly Lion: ‘If I Were King…’

Speaking to American Cable Association members in Washington, D.C., this morning, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said that if he were chairman for a day, the first thing he would do would be to push and pass a process-reform agenda as a matter of “good government and good policy.” Pai cited petitions that have been languishing at the agency for years, perhaps decades, and he advocates for such changes as application-review reform, allowing petitioners to accept or fight a bureau decision rather than be subjected to full-commission scrutiny. “If, by Day 90, there is no question that needs to be addressed by the whole commission, the bureau decision stands and the applicant can either accept it or go to court,” Pai explained. “There is no such thing as a small item if you are the person who filed it.” Other front-burner Pai objectives are deadlines (“Setting a deadline pushes decisions,” he noted) and sunset clauses that would allow certain rules to have an expiration date.