Pai in Good Position to Lead FCC, Says Former Chairman Hundt

before becoming a commissioner. “Ajit is really in a good position because he knows the agency and he knows the topics and he knows his own mind,” Hundt said in a Tuesday interview. Responses to the Pai appointment continued to roll in Tuesday after Pai got the job Monday (see 1701230058). Some of the comments raised red flags. “Throughout his tenure at the FCC, Commissioner Pai has been a steadfast opponent of net neutrality and consumer privacy rules, and a rubber stamp for mega-mergers,” said Sarah Morris, director-open internet policy for New America's Open Technology Institute. “His anti-regulatory agenda is a gift to telecom lobbyists and a major threat to consumers, small businesses, and the American economy.” Demand Progress saw Pai as a threat. This “is a guy who said after Trump was elected that the neutrality's ‘days are numbered’ and that he would ‘fire up the weed whacker’ to gut protections like the open internet rule,” the group said in a fundraising email Tuesday. “Pai wants to undo the free and open internet rules we won in 2015. But Demand Progress, together with you and our allies, saved the internet before, and we can do it again.” The Association of National Advertisers, which fought FCC ISP privacy rules, said in a blog post it welcomed the appointment. “Few FCC Chairmen have come to the job better prepared, as Pai had served before being an FCC Commissioner as an FCC Deputy General Counsel, in senior positions in the Justice Department, and high staff positions on the Hill and in the private sector,” the group said.