Opening remarks and take questions afterwards. So glad to see 70 people here interested see so many people here interested. Let me begin by welcoming any thet time guests to commission. I have a few brief remarks i would like to offer. Today the fcc decided to restore the light touch that govern the itsrnet for most of existence. This is designed to provide infrastructure and innovation. Consumers will be free to go where they want and do what they want online. By removing heavyhanded regulations that stand in the infrastructure, im confident more consumers will enjoy better, faster and cheaper Internet Access. Acquisition was important and caps off an important year at the fcc. We have been working hard to update our rules to match the modern Communications Marketplace and to promote public safety. E stockd to briefly tak of the steps we have taken. Fundve put in mobility phase two that will connect Rural Communities and bridge the digital divide. We gave carriers more rules to block robocalls. We authorize a new television standard for next Generation Broadcast Television that will open the door to a free over the air broadcast service. We started approving the next generation of satellite constellations that aim to provide Internet Access to remote and tribal areas. We want to increase accessibility to disabled americans. We modernize rules to make it easier for carriers to move to next generation fiber networks. We made available 1700 megahertz of highfrequency sp ectrum to pave the way for services. Million in 77 advance funding to carriers in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. We updated media ownership rules to update reality of the digital age. The realities of the digital age. Protect our code to nations one course and officers and we restored Law Enforcement officers and we restored Internet Freedom. I want to thank the fcc staff that made this freedom possible. I understand the sacrifice they make for the public interest. It has been my great honor to lead this remarkable team of public service. They deserve very welldeserved i hope they take some welldeserved time off during the Holiday Season and i look towards working with them in 2018. I was hoping you could tell us some more about why we got evacuated. Im not at liberty to say. It was on the orders of the federal protective service. Ownership, a lot of people i have talked to in the broadcast industry say they do to anyect it to lead action. To act the fcc going on it before it does the review . We just adopted the rulemakings so i cannot forecast if and when we will take action. Decisions are going to be guided on the facts that are on the record. Until that record develops, i cannot talk about that. I was wondering. It seems like the majority is thinking flexibility is seeking flexibility on things like zero rating. Why was it important to end the bans on walking and throttling. He said the circuit give you followroadmap, why not it . We all favor a free and open internet. The question is what is the Regulatory Framework to preserve values of a free and open internet. Is expert says the question between enforcement using the sledgehammer of title ii, using the scaffold they have that is unfair and taking action on any uncompetitive conduct and the like. His position is that the framework we had for many years is the best way to make sure that those cases do not materialize and to preserve that Infrastructure Investment incentive. To follow up on the question telecomro ratingm. Advocates have framed those practices as things that Consumers Want such as not counting certain streamings and toa cap this seems contradict or undermine the Market Forces idea around removing bans on blocking and throttling, which consumers theoretically do not want. Therefore the isp will not engage in that behavior. What specific Market Forces ispsjkeep telecoms and from taking part in paid prioritization that consumers do not want. Chairman pai there is a great example of government regulators standing in the way of providers who want to distinguish themselves in a competitive marketplace. It is telling that the first investigation that the fcc kicked off after adopting these heavyhanded rules was taking action to investigate free data offerings. Thats the wrong thing for the government to be doing. They said we are going to deny consumers the benefit of these offerings. The second part of your question, Market Forces. Look at the wireless marketplace. Havemajor carriers unlimited data plans. They are competing each other, not just on the basis of price, but also on the basis of Service Offerings like free data and unlimited data plans. That is a terrific check that serves consumers well and make sure we have a marketplace consistent with a free and open internet. Writes one from the sloanngton post ryan post. E washington what gives you the confidence a future fcc will not reverse of that finding and comment on the back and forth weve had on Net Neutrality for the past decade. Chairman pai we released the order. It has been released three weeks in advance. You can see our legal analysis. Not and706 is infirmities an affirmative grant of regulatory authority. I would argue the 2015 decision is the real break. We had a bipartisan touchnsus on light operation. In 2015, they decided to adopt heavyhanded rules because of pressure from the white house. I think this bipartisan consensus we are returning is going to win the day both in the court of Public Opinion and in congress as well. Regarding customer choice, specifically when it comes to the Net Neutrality regulations, could you talk to us about how customers will have the additional choice . When it comes to legacy carriers and other carries like spectrum tobaccoast that have monopoly de facto monopolies in most of the country,. What will todays action due to increase customer options . Chairman pai it will increase investment in infrastructure. I have talked to Small Companies and they say on the record that these rules stand in the way of them building out their network. Or providing an alternative to the bigger incumbents in other parts of the country. By taking these heavyhanded rules off the table and establishing the light touch approach, we will see more competition. This proceeding operate in conjunction with the other initiatives i talked about. The 2 billion connect america program. The satellite constellation that can serve as an alternative to terrestrial providers. Taking action on lowering the cost and time frame in terms of getting pole attachments. Making sure we do not have federal agencies standing in the way by delaying. Steps are in the time thesever initiatives will deliver a boost to consumers because of competitive choice and Infrastructure Investment is going to go up. How long will the commission take to review the broadcast ownership caps and if you should decide to eliminate them, how long after that . Chairman pai i cannot give a forecast of the item. I cannot remember off the top of my head. Closed, wecord is will take a look at the facts and the record. H forward wea pat will take action. Ahead of todays vote on Net Neutrality, there were several republican lawmakers who called on you to delay the vote on the proposal. Others cannot publicly to say they disagree with your approach. Did they express his concerns to you before going public and did they express it todays decision would impact their reelection process . Have you heard anything from republicans on the hill griping about how much this deal will cause in trouble at the ballot box. Chairman pai absolutely not. I respect members of congress on both sides of the aisle, but those kinds of electoral calculations have never been a part of our conversation. Aboutanted to quickly ask fcc authority. There has been a lot of confidence that they are able to take up the mantle of protecting the open internet after this. There has been critics who pointed to the at t mobility case at court. If there are already issues with fcc, if the court looks at that and they have any struggle, with there be any scenario where the fcc would look into reestablishing Net Neutrality regulations . Trouble,c ran into what would happen . Chairman pai i do not answer hypotheticals. You operate on the basis of the law. Land not the law of the nintht the law of the circuit. Be way forward is going to the current law. The fcc does have jurisdiction. Placen will this take after he gets published in the federal register . Chairman pai you have heard all the litany of harms your democratic colleagues in Congress Might come from this. If those harms came to pass, and Market Forces did not prevent this happening, would you reconsider your decision today or would you be confident the fcc would be able to handle those harms . Chairman pai the critical part of your question was the word might. All of these harms you are talking about our hypothetical. They are not shown in the record. We took the approach of post enforcement instead of preemptive regulation from the fcc. You might not see what the costs in terms of feature innovation from these regulations are. But if harms materialized, the fcc will take action against misconduct by any Internet Service provider. Nations premier protection cop on the beat. We are confident the wellestablished tradition of Consumer Protection will carry Going Forward. Something i wrote about today. I was talking to some economists and one thing they were saying was they had a concern the Economic Analysis that rather than doing objective analysis, theh is those who wrote order look at this from the results they wanted to pick up. They were mostly citing things that spoke to their conclusion. That could be an institutional problem in places like the fcc and could you give us an update on your efforts . Chairman pai i respectfully disagree with you ever made made that whoever , observation. If you look at the draft order we made a careful assessment of the facts as it appeared on the economic aspect of our decision. I am confident that on any judicial tribunal, reasonable people will see we can try to evaluate the various impacts of these rules. Analysis, we are still studying that issue. I do not have a particular timeframe backing to me, but it will remain under active study. Today there was a big media merger that was announced. During the campaign, donald trump said that he had concerns over media concentration. Do you have those concerns as well . Chairman pai i just heard about that i just literally heard the headline about that field being announced. Being announced. The comments i made going back to when i was a nominee for this position, we review every transaction through the lens of the public interest. Be applied within the agencys authority to ameliorate any harms,. As it exists, there are problems with. Chairman pai ill not make comments about the marketplace that could be misinterpreted. There has been a lot impaction about economic of the 2015 rules. I would like to ask you about a question thats a comment you made in 2014 about how each commissioner would be able to to overviewnomists the impact. Way thist you take the time . We saw how that fared in the last administration. You are in charge now. Chairman pai we grappled with the facts and record and im confident once again that reasonable people will see that we conducted analysis of those facts. Immediately after the vote, there are announcements of lawsuits plans including from the new York Attorney general who plans a multistate lawsuit to reinstate the rules. There have been called for challenging your position in court. What is your strongest Legal DefenseGoing Forward . Chairman pai im shocked people are going to challenge this decision in court. I do not want to prejudge the legal issues, which are very complex. Im sure our general counsels office will handle that. In terms of substances law, the courtiave law, said that the fcc has the right. Opinion of at the judge tatel, they say the fcc has the discretion to decide how Broadband Internet classification should be cited. You abided by the procedures specified. We abided by the substantial iidence rule as and believe i said we are going to follow that substantial evidence test. That quantum of evidence is sufficient to justify conclusions reached by the agency. Im confident our decision will be upheld. Good afternoon. Greg wallace from cnn. Following on legal challenges, im sure you are aware of criticism of the Internet FreedomNet Neutrality decision from businesses to consumer groups. You think you and your allies have done a great job explaining how this can help consumers . Chairman pai we consistently said that the repeal of these heavyhanded rules would be good for entrepreneurs across the country. Spoke about the fact that a lot of consumers, their number one concern is about Getting Better access. Regulations take us in the opposite direction of that. We need to make sure we focus the Agency Attention on the number one Consumer Preference which is Getting Better, faster and cheaper Internet Access. The decision we made today in conjunction with all the decisions we made this year fit together for a much more competitive marketplace. Where there is massive incentive to invest in infrastructure. You were in a video last night promoting Net Neutrality. In that video, one of the extras or whatever was a video producer hased martina marcota, she advocated the pizza gate conspiracy theory. Is it ok for you to promote Net Neutrality with someone who . Romotes baseless lies chairman pai im not familiar with those facts. You identified. Fcc identifies most homes no choice for a competitive broadband provider. Does that undermine the logic for your rules that competition will solve any problems we see . Chairman pai the solution of a lack of competition is more competition. It is not preemptive regulation that ultimately deters investment. The companies that most people have never heard of and the once critical to providing a more competitive marketplace, those are the companies that tell us these rules stand in the way of them raising capital and Offering Services to their customers. These are companies that are nonprofit and owned by city governments. They have told us that these rules prevent them from developing their networks further. I visited both the spencer municipal utilities and the lorenz useful utilities. Those companies told me they would love to be able to network further and make more Service Offerings but they do not feel these title ii regulations enable them to do that. If we return to our old framework, we will see much more competition. The question i had was, i was hoping if you could walk us through how, based on the Net Neutrality order, it will make it easier for smaller Broadband Companies to enter the competition . On abstract level, that makes sense, but if that were true, we wouldve had more competition prior to 2015. Chairman pai Going Forward, the license approach is the one best calibrated to preserve the freedom of the internet and get Smaller Companies a better incentive to invest in infrastructure. I spoke to some of these small providers. What is the providers is in minnesota. He said he had a Bank IncreasesInterest Rates specifically because of the regulatory certainty created by these rules. Another provider told me these rules required him to hire a lawyer to figure out how these regulations apply to his business. These are the companies least able to withstand the Regulatory Compliance burdens. If you want more competition, it is incumbent upon the legacy to have a light touch framework that gives them a Business Case for deployment. Smaller companies are deploying moreral areas and the heavily regulate something in that environment, the less likely you are going to get that something. Out of wondering if you might be able to tell us what are the the 9thnding before change how might that things . Chairman pai the Panel Decision in that case has been vacated. The status quo is the law of the land and that is the Legal Foundation upon which we are operating. Ftcf you can go back to the and the memorandum of agreement. Can you talk about implementation of that now that the order has been approved. What is the schedule that mou of that mou . Chairman pai now that the order has passed, the fcc and ftc will execute that memorandum of understanding. Collaborateble to to make sure the Consumer Protection competitions are discharged appropriately. Thank you, everyone. Were going to transition to the bureau press conference. The bureau will try to go through the agenda and i may combine some. I know there will be some commissioner press conferences right now. The first item on the blue alert, public saf