Pai, a lawyer by training, has a history of clashing with Democratic FCC commissioners.
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President-elect Donald Trump met with Ajit Pai, an Indian American commissioner in the US communications regulatory agency, hinting at the possibility of the new administration picking Pai as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said that the president-elect on Monday met with Pai, who is a Republican nominee on the FCC. He is one of the four sitting FCC commissioners.
The reshuffle of the FCC is imminent, as it is currently headed by Democratic party nominee Tom Wheeler. If he’s appointed, Pai will have to be confirmed by the US Senate.
FCC is a federal agency that primarily regulates radio, television, phone, cellphone spectrum and services, internet and satellite and cable.
Pai, who is a lawyer by training, has served the government, Congress, and the private sector.
Pai, whose parents immigrated from India, has been at loggerheads with the heads of FCC over their functioning and have engaged in somber discourses.
Recently, Pai had an altercation with the FCC over the issue of net neutrality when the federal agency questioned the legality of offerings that are used by people to access online music, videos, and other content free of charge.
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In one of his recent tweets, Pai wrote: “Every American should have a chance to be a participant in, rather than a spectator of, the digital economy.” This is a clear statement of how he looks at the future of digitalization.
In one of his recent articles, titled “A Digital Empowerment Agenda,” Pai wrote: “We shouldn’t be trying to shoehorn new services into old regulatory frameworks no matter how poor the fit. Instead, the government should ask whether consumers are benefiting from these new services, products, and modes of distribution. If they are, and there’s no systematic evidence of fraud or misrepresentation against consumers, the government shouldn’t erect artificial roadblocks to competition—and certainly not for the purpose of benefiting entrenched interests.”
In December, Pai said in a speech before the Free State Foundation in Washington, DC: “I’m optimistic that last month’s election will prove to be an inflection point—and that during the Trump Administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense.”
He also added that the commission “need[s] to remove outdated and unnecessary regulations… We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation.”
Pai is the fourth Indian American in contention for a key administration position. The other three are Nikki Haley, who will be U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and Seema Verma, who has been named as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Balaji Srinivasan, who is reportedly the Trump pick for the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In addition, Trump has appointed Raj Shah as his deputy assistant and research director on the White House staff.