REMARKS OF FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
DURING OPEN COMMISSION MEETING TELECONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, DC

MARCH 31, 2020

Good morning and welcome to the March 2020 open meeting of the Federal Communications Commission.  Safe to say, this is one of the most extraordinary open meetings in Commission history—for these are extraordinary times.  One key way that today’s meeting is extraordinary is that there are no agenda items.  That’s because, over the past several days, the Commission has already voted on and approved the items we teed up three weeks ago.  Most notably, we advanced new rules requiring phone companies to implement caller-ID authentication technology, an important step toward reducing unwanted robocalls. 
 
With no policy proposals to discuss today, I instead want to focus my brief opening remarks on the people of the FCC.  First, thank you to my fellow Commissioners.  From agreeing to hold today’s meeting via teleconference to voting on the meeting items early, my colleagues have repeatedly come together to advance the public interest and deliver for the American people.  
 
Thank you to the FCC staff who completed the work on this month’s items.  We were able to get these items over the finish line during a hectic past few weeks because FCC staff laid the foundation with their hard work in the preceding months.  

More generally, thanks to all of the FCC staff for successfully transitioning to telework in recent weeks.  We not only completed the work on our March items, but we’re going to be rolling out a full April agenda tomorrow with items from the International, Media, and Wireline Competition Bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology.  In addition, we have taken many steps during this crisis to meet the increasing demands on communications networks created by the COVID-19 pandemic and keep Americans connected.  Plus, the day-to-day work of the Commission goes on, including recent online meetings of the Precision Agriculture Task Force, or PATF, the CSRIC, the BDAC, and the TAC—an alphabet soup of groups that need no introduction to this audience. 
 
Beyond the FCC, I want to acknowledge the 653 broadband and telephone providers across our country who have pledged to keep Americans connected as we fight through this pandemic, as well as the 17 trade associations that have endorsed the Pledge.  Their commitment will allow millions of Americans to stay in touch while keeping a distance. 

In addition to these many thank yous, I’ll close with one additional message for all the FCC staff out there and to anyone else listening:  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  And stay home.