Media Contact: Tina Pelkey, (202) 418-0536 tina.pelkey@fcc.gov For Immediate Release CHAIRMAN PAI STATEMENT ON SENATE CRA VOTE -- WASHINGTON, May 16, 2018—Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released the following statement regarding the U.S. Senate’s vote on the Congressional Review Act resolution regarding the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order: “It’s disappointing that Senate Democrats forced this resolution through by a narrow margin. But ultimately, I'm confident that their effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet will fail. “The Internet was free and open before 2015, when the prior FCC buckled to political pressure from the White House and imposed utility-style regulation on the Internet. And it will continue to be free and open once the Restoring Internet Freedom Order takes effect on June 11. “Moreover, contrary to the scare tactics employed by Senate Democrats, which earned three Pinocchios from the Washington Post’s fact-checker, our light-touch approach will deliver better, faster, and cheaper Internet access and more broadband competition to the American people—something that millions of consumers desperately want and something that should be a top priority. The prior Administration’s regulatory overreach took us in the opposite direction, reducing investment in broadband networks and particularly harming small Internet service providers in rural and lower-income areas. Our approach will help promote digital opportunity—that is, making high-speed Internet access available to every single American so that they can be participants in, rather than spectators of, our digital economy.” ### Office of Media Relations: (202) 418-0500 ASL Videophone: (844) 432-2275 TTY: (888) 835-5322 Twitter: @FCC www.fcc.gov/media-relations This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).