President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to elevate Ajit Pai to head the Federal Communications Commission, Politico reports.
Pai, one of only two Republican FCC commissioners, won't need Senate approval because he was already confirmed when he was first pointed to the FCC by former President Barack Obama.
Neither Pai nor the Trump transition team responded to Politico's request for comment. Politico's source, four unnamed communications insiders, claim the announcement will come as soon as Friday afternoon.
A telecom law expert, Pai has been a passionate critic of the 2015 net neutrality rules, which he said at the time would cause "higher broadband prices, slower broadband speeds, less broadband deployment, less innovation, and fewer options for consumers," according to The Verge.
Pai and fellow Republican Commissioner Mike O'Rielly announced in December that they will “seek to revisit" these regulations “as soon as possible."
His views on this issue sparked criticism from net neutrality advocacy group Free Press.
"Ajit Pai has been on the wrong side of just about every major issue that has come before the FCC during his tenure," Craig Aaron, President and CEO of Free Press, told Politico in a statement.
"He's never met a mega-merger he didn't like or a public safeguard he didn't try to undermine," Aaron continued. "He's been an inveterate opponent of net neutrality, expanded broadband access for low-income families, broadband privacy, media diversity and more."
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