O'Rielly, Pai Say FCC Majority Often Has No Interest in Compromise
Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly told reporters after the FCC meeting Thursday that they feel their interests are sometimes ignored by Chairman Tom Wheeler. O’Rielly said during the meeting he felt misled on the Telephone Consumers Protection Act order…
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(see 1506180046). “We consistently come forward with a solution that we think would work for everybody,” Pai said in his own news conference with O'Rielly after Wheeler's news conference. “What we’re told is, ‘No. This is a red line. No, you can’t have that.’” The chairman’s office refuses to agree to any compromise with other support from all three majority offices, said Pai. “At the end of the day, you end up with an unprecedented level of 3-2 votes.” Pai said the FCC under Wheeler makes the agency under former Chairman Kevin Martin seem like a “time of collegiality and compromise.” O’Rielly said he has looked for common ground. The current majority is “happy to accommodate you if you’re going to agree with them,” said O'Rielly. In the Lifeline order, also approved Thursday, at one point there were four votes for a cap, O’Rielly said. A cap was blocked by one of the Democratic commissioners, he said. “At what point does the minority of the majority become tyranny?”