FCC leadership said release of draft items for monthly meetings is a big success, improving transparency and public understanding of planned actions. “The Open Meeting plays a critical role in the work we do and generally serves as the platform for our consideration of the most high-profile proposals,” said Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement to us. "It is simply good government to make public the text of the items we will be considering there.” GOP colleagues Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr back the new practice. O'Rielly said it leads to better feedback and outcomes. Pai recently floated the possibility of also releasing text of items on circulation among commissioners; O’Rielly endorsed the idea. Others haven't weighed in.

Ajit Pai’s first 10-plus months as FCC chairman featured contentious public interactions with congressional Democrats and favorable treatment from Republicans. Democratic lawmakers we spoke with insisted their animus overwhelmingly involves the FCC’s policy agenda. At the agency itself, Pai oversees many split votes as he pursues his deregulatory agenda (see 1711070024 and 1711050001).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to keep a busy agenda and has done so since he took office in January. Commissioner meetings under Pai have taken up an average of seven items, with a high of nine in July. Observers said when Pai became chairman he might have trouble keeping up with the pace set by his predecessor Tom Wheeler, who in general embraced a more regulatory philosophy. But another article in this Special Report found the Pai FCC votes on many more items at commissioner meetings than under Wheeler (see 1711070024).

During the first weeks of Ajit Pai’s tenure as FCC chairman he was particularly active in meeting with the media and with lawmakers, according to a Special Report analysis of his appointment calendar obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Pai, like predecessor Tom Wheeler, also had many meetings in those early weeks with telco and media interests, with Pai early on more active gathering with public interest groups.

Local government officials are trying to be heard as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai seeks to end barriers to broadband deployment through rulemakings and an industry-dominated committee. With the FCC moving at a “dizzying pace,” local governments feel they must grab on or risk getting left behind, said Andy Huckaba, a Republican city council member in Lenexa, Kansas, and one of three local officials on the 30-member Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. The full members and another four local officials serve on BDAC working groups with several dozens of others. In other interviews, local and state officials raised concerns about what BDAC membership says about FCC willingness to listen to governments, but some said they feel included.

When he was an FCC commissioner, now-Chairman Ajit Pai frequently criticized then-Chairman Tom Wheeler for overseeing an FCC divided along party lines. With Pai nearing one year in charge, his commission appears to have a similar partisan divide to the preceding one, found a review for this Special Report of all commissioners' meeting votes under both leaders in their first year or so. Not all interviewed for this article agree partisanship continues unabated under Pai, although all agree it's increased from the distant past. And when all and not just meeting votes are included, Pai does fare better.

Less than 10 months into the tenure of Ajit Pai as FCC chairman, areas of controversy and early success are coming into focus. The seven stories in this Communications Daily Special Report: "The Pai Perspective: A Look at the FCC’s New Deregulatory Leadership," chart Pai's path as the first Republican chief of the communications regulator since Kevin Martin left at the end of President George W. Bush's administration in January 2009. These stories are the result of Freedom of Information Act requests, months of reporting and dozens of interviews.

Officials working for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai have often used Twitter to slam news critical about the commission, according to our eight-month review of social media activities. Also unlike at DOJ, the FTC and NTIA, FCC aides using their government Twitter accounts regularly praise the substance of reporting that sheds a positive light on the agency under Pai. Some of the negative tweets may not abide by best practices, FCC responses to our Freedom of Information Act requests show.

The latest iteration of net neutrality rules formally kicked off with a 3-2 party-line vote by FCC members in front of a standing-room-only crowd on Feb. 26, 2015. After many twists and turns in a lengthy process with millions of comments submitted, that included a significant course correction by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the final order was released in March 2015. It reclassified broadband as a Title II telecom service subject to some common-carrier regulation under the Communications Act.

Even before the FCC released its net neutrality rules on March 12, 2015, ISP interests signaled they would take the agency to court. The likes of CTIA and NCTA predicted lawsuits, as reported in Part I of this Special Report (see 1609150017). Even FCC officials predicted such suits -- accurately, as it turned out. This Part II focuses on how litigation came to pass. Part III reports how the commission won an initial court case (see 1610130014).