Who is Ajit Pai?

http://www.fcc.gov/leadership/ajit-pai

The FCC Commission that makes the rules about Radio, TV and the uses of radio spectrum is composed of 5 members.  The rules are that no more than 3 can belong to the same political party.  Each term lasts for 5 years, so each year 1 position opens up.  What this means in practical terms is that during the first year after taking office, the political party of the President will have a 3-2 majority on the Commission.

Up until this week, the Commission has only had 3 members. The US Senate is required to give its consent, but the arcane rules of the Senate permit a single Senator to place a hold on a candidate indefinitely – in this case, Senator Grassley (R-IA) who has been blocking both appointments because he wants to hold a show trial about why the FCC approved a company called Ligthsquared to use spectrum next to the GPS band to offer nationwide 4G high speed broadband Internet access, something opposed by the US military and GPS device makers who fear that the service could cause GPS devices to stop working.

Since Senator Gassley is a member of the minority party in the US Senate, he has no power to coerce the Senate to do anything – other than by holding these appointments hostage for 6 months – Lightsquared filed for bankruptcy this week, “resolving” the issue and President Obama’s 2 nominees were quickly approved.

The FCC up until now has been running with three people – Barack Obama’s close personal friend Julius Genachowski is chairman.  Robert McDowell is the one carryover from the George Bush era, and one of the two “Republican” seats .  The third person until this week was the type of person you would expect to be appointed by the first gay black president – Mignon Clyburn is a black woman from South Carolina who ran a newspaper for 14 years that targeted the African American communisty.  She parlayed that influence into a job on the Public Service Commisison that keeps those evil corporations from exploiting poor people.   She had no prior experience in the things the FCC regulates, just familiar with the process of regulation.

Ajit Pai is the new “Republican” named to fill the second Republican seat.   From his name, you might guess he is a member of the increasingly important Asian Indian wing of the Republican Party.  He is making his TV debut Wednesday at 2:30 as the Democratic controlled Senate asks the FCC about the FM licensing logjam.

Mr. Pai is an attorney who has worked on the FCC for a number of years, so he is highly qualified to understand the legal and technical issues the commission is asked to rule on.  Prior to joining the FCC, he worked in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, he worked for Verizon, then a DC law firm that does legal work on FCC issues.

The third Democrat also confirmed is Jessica Rosenworcel.   Despite having six months to pull it together, the FCC does not yet have a biography for her on the web site.     At her hearing before the Senate Oversight committee [here], she lists her qualifications to hold the job:  She has a husband, two children, and her parents are from Connecticut – her dad is a doctor and her mother runs a soup kitchen in Hartford, CT…   and she has been a staff attorney for the Senate Oversight committee that was holding the hearing, which is headed by Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).   She is a puppet for Jay Rockefeller, a pretty blatant conflict of interest.   The FCC is designed to be independent of Congressional meddling.

Here is her official White House description:  (from here)

Jessica Rosenworcel is the Senior Communications Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, working for Senator Jay Rockefeller IV since 2009, and previously for Senator Daniel K. Inouye from 2007 to 2008.  Before joining the Committee, she worked at the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2007, serving as Legal Advisor and then Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Michael J. Copps (2003-2007), Legal Counsel to the Bureau Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau (2002-2003), and as an Attorney-Advisor in the Policy Division of the Common Carrier Bureau (1999-2002).  From 1997 to 1999, Ms. Rosenworcel was a communications associate at Drinker Biddle and Reath.  Ms. Rosenworcel received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

So that’s who will be making decisions about things like every American having a right to free high speed internet access and who should get new low power FM radio station licenses.