Wheeler Seen Preserving Unwritten Rule in Stepping Down Before Start of Next Administration

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, like Wheeler at her last meeting (see 1612150068), was also saluted by her colleagues, keeping alive another FCC tradition. An emotional Wheeler paid tribute to his top aides who have left or are leaving, including Gigi Sohn and Diane Cornell, and Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero.

“Wheeler is preserving one of the very important unwritten rules that keeps the FCC accountable to the new administration -- that if the party in the White House changes, the chairman leaves,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. “One of the biggest problems we have in our hyperpartisan and dysfunctional government is that everyone seems willing to sacrifice the safety valves and accountability mechanisms for momentary advantage. Is it really worth it to compromise an important precedent to lock up the FCC for a few months? I don't think so.”

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, also said Wheeler is right to leave. “Why should he remain as the FCC becomes a digital Titanic ... as it works to kill consumer protection for broadband? He will have the last laugh, as whomever succeeds him is publicly pilloried for being a tool of every major media conglomerate. It’s better that Wheeler clears the decks, so the fight over America’s internet future can explode starting noon Jan. 20.”

“Although Chairman Wheeler would have been justified to stay, given the failure to reconfirm Commissioner Rosenworcel, it’s also very appropriate that he should observe the tradition of the agency and not remain around for partisan reasons,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America.

Earlier Commitment

Wheeler was asked repeatedly at his final post-meeting news conference why he didn't announce his resignation sooner in order to boost Rosenworcel’s chances of being reconfirmed. Wheeler maintained Thursday that he publicly committed in a March hearing on Capitol Hill to “adhere to tradition” and abide by the wishes of the new administration’s transition team. “I’ve said that all along and I’ve just stuck with that commitment,“ Wheeler said. Asked why it was widely believed he hadn't confirmed he would step down, Wheeler disagreed with the question’s premise, pointing to comments of Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that the chairman said indicated the Senate did know he would step down. “I don’t know why people do things,” Wheeler said.

“I don’t think that message got through,” ex-Commissioner Mike Copps said in an interview Thursday. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, pushed for Rosenworcel to be renominated Thursday (see 1612150068), as did the incoming minority leader, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“The cry for laissez-faire government that walks away from government oversight is highly dangerous to consumers” and to companies, Wheeler said. “Eliminating regulations doesn’t mean there will be no oversight; it means regulation will be provided by other rule-makers in other countries,” who might be motivated to make rules beneficial to their own companies, Wheeler said. “As much as we would like to retreat to simpler times and simpler solutions," reality doesn’t allow that, he said, saying he has “strong feelings” about those “who have defined success in terms of a return to polices that are unfit for the 21st century. "

Making decisions in the common good is “tough” and “making demands that benefit a specific constituency is easy, as is attacking the decision-maker because you don’t like that decision” said Wheeler. The “malleability” of what’s considered to be in the public interest is the biggest lesson of his tenure, he said. “The public interest is not monolithic.”

The chairman made several references to the contentious FCC he oversaw. An FCC combining “five type-A personalities” is “not always going to see eye to eye,” Wheeler said. For government policies to include multiple viewpoints, debates must be “rough and tumble,” he said. “If we don’t use government to argue this out, it doesn’t mean the decisions won’t be made, just that the decisions won’t be made with everyone’s input.” A one-vote majority is a majority, Wheeler said. “It’s hard to reach a compromise with people who say no at the outset.” He called the FCC’s failed attempt to create new set-top rules a disappointment of his chairmanship, and repeatedly praised FCC staff.

'Gracious' Move

Wheeler is “graciously allowing the new administration to take the full reins of power at the commission as soon as the new president takes the oath of office,” said former Commissioner Robert McDowell. “With a 2-1 FCC, much can be accomplished.” McDowell, a Republican commissioner during the 2008 transition when Copps was interim chief, noted that 2-1 FCC “brought home the complex digital TV transition in the first half of 2009 and we agreed on more than 50 other significant items over six months.”

Wheeler's decision to leave “in the traditional manner underscores the importance of institutional norms in our civil society,” emailed former Democratic Chairman Reed Hundt. “It also provides occasion for noting the remarkable accomplishments of the Commission under Chairman Wheeler. Everything that was supposed to go up, went up; what was supposed to go down, went down. Rising stocks, increasing jobs, greater investment, innovation breakthroughs, regularity clarity, judicial victories, expanded social safety net, and consumer protections have all gone hand in hand.”

Wheeler’s main opponents, Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly, complimented Wheeler Thursday. Pai called him “a tenacious worker” though acknowledged they had often disagreed, and O’Rielly called him a “gentleman.” In her goodbye speech, Rosenworcel called Wheeler “an activist chairman.”

The thing Wheeler is likely to miss the most about being chairman is the access to information, Copps said: Knowledge of everything happening at the FCC and in the industry is “waiting in your desk in the morning.” Wheeler is one of the most progressive chairmen the agency has seen, Copps said, though he said the commission could have done more on media ownership. Copps praised Wheeler’s orders on net neutrality and Comcast's ill-fated attempt to buy Time Warner Cable, and said he hopes Wheeler “stays involved” in the battle to preserve the net neutrality rules. Wheeler said opponents of the rules would have a difficulty trying to create a record against the mandates.

Wheeler is “by far, the best FCC Chairman in the 45 years I have practiced Communications Law,” emailed Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. Wheeler’s leaving and the 2-1 majority it will create in the FCC will lead to an uptick in broadcast stocks, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford also sees the future FCC as possibly advantageous to broadcasters, since all three remaining commissioners have shown interest in the industry, he said in a blog post.

Critics

Some Wheeler critics took a last shot. “@TomWheelerFCC did his best to be a champion over competition... and kill it to benefit #Google,” tweeted Brett Glass, who runs a wireless ISP in Wyoming. “Good riddance.”

“I don’t question Chairman Wheeler’s motives in taking the actions that he did, but I do question his judgment,” said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation. “When rapid technological change is driving increasing competition and consumer choice, Wheeler almost always defaulted to the most pro-regulatory position rather than the less regulatory, market-oriented one. The default presumption should have been the other way around.”

NAB, Incompas, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and numerous other trade associations and organizations praised Wheeler in statements Thursday. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said Wheeler’s legacy “stands the tallest” among FCC chairs with whom she has worked.

“It would be disingenuous to suggest that we did not have significant differences with the direction the FCC took under Chairman Wheeler," said Bob Quinn, AT&T senior executive vice president, in a blog post. "However, Chairman Wheeler has been a respected leader in the video and wireless industries for over 30 years with many accomplishments. Following that illustrious career, and when most people would have hung up their spikes, he chose to enter public service where he was a dedicated and tireless advocate."