march17_b.indd


C&RL News March 2017 172

Larra Clark is deputy director for the ALA Office for 
Information Technology Policy, email: lclark@ala.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eLarra Clark

FCC: Full speed in reverse 
The Federal Communications Commission 
(FCC), like most other federal agencies, is 
moving in a very different direction under 
the new leadership in Washington—and 
at an unprecedented speed. Within two 
weeks of starting his new position as 
chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai took several 
actions that reverse gains made in recent 
years. 

Pai dealt a first blow to network neu-
trality—the principle that Internet service 
providers (ISPs) should enable access to all 
content and applications without favoring 
or blocking particular services or websites. 
The FCC decided to close investigations into 
whether wireless ISPs “zero rated” data plans 
violate protections under the 2015 Open 
Internet Order. 

As more of our digital lives are lived via 
mobile broadband, library, and higher edu-
cation groups fought for network neutrality 
protections to be applied equally to fixed 
and mobile broadband. Favoring affiliated 
digital content by excluding it from mobile 
broadband data caps raise significant ques-
tions related to network neutrality principles 
that should have been addressed through 
investigation. Advocates for network neutral-
ity expect this to be the first of many attacks 
on net neutrality. 

Another backward move came to the 
Lifeline program, which now provides dis-
counted broadband service to eligible low-
income people. Despite statements he made 
last year emphasizing his commitment to 
digital empowerment, Pai revoked the desig-
nations of nine companies recently approved 

as Lifeline Broadband Providers (LBP). In 
response to a flood of protest from public 
interest groups, he defended the decision in 
a public statement, citing objections to the 
process by which the companies had been 
granted designations as LBPs. 

Will the FCC put all LBP applications on 
hold for months or years, or will it move 
swiftly to address any concerns that the chair-
man has raised?

Also of concern to library professionals 
and other advocates for access to govern-
ment information, Pai ordered the retraction 
of several recent reports. Among them were 
the “E-rate Modernization Progress Report” 
and “Improving the Nation’s Digital Infra-
structure,” both of which have since disap-
peared from the FCC’s website. These actions 
undermine the credibility of the FCC and Pai’s 
recent move to increase transparency of the 
commission’s rulemaking by circulating to the 
public proposals to be considered at future 
commission meetings. 

ALA is greatly concerned by recent FCC 
actions to reduce digital opportunity and 
revise the public record and is speaking out. 
We believe the FCC should build on years of 
work and public engagement to make broad-
band work better for all Americans, rather 
than turn back the clock. Library advocates 
can help in several ways:

• stay informed via District Dispatch blog; 
•   sign up for Action Alerts from ALA’s 

Office of Government Relations, so we can 
reach you quickly when direct action is 
needed;

• share your stories, blog, and engage on 
social networks about the importance of net-
work neutrality and the need to defend it; and 

• participate in National Library Legislative 
Day—either in Washington, D.C., or online—
May 1 and 2.