To welcome them again. Were grateful that cspan is here. Im sure it has quite a bit to do with our next guest here, chairman pai, but were glad all of you, all of you are here. So in keeping chairman pai knows that i do this because hes been here before. Hes got an illustrious biography, i could go on and on and on about it, but weve got it in the brochure, for those of you who are in the cspan audience, our brochure is on the website, on the home page of the website. Its got fcc chairman ajit pais bio in it. So i commend that to you, but you know, i would just say, to state what everyone here knows, that chairman pai served as a commissioner prior to assuming the chairmanship of the fcc. How soon after the inauguration, was that two days later . It was on a monday, january 23rd, so about three days after. About three days, he was appointed by President Trump to be chair of the fcc. You know, what i will say about chairman pai is this, without going over each of the particular offices which you can read about. And i pointed this out before, but i think its important. Hes actually served in all three branches of government, spent a lot of time in senior positions on the hill and of course in the agencies over at the justice department. And i think all of those experiences are, of course, important and provide insights that are useful. I think. A charitable explanation, i suppose. More charitable, i keep failing at every job and keep getting promoted and next thingio know, im in the corner office. I think my explanation was really the correct one, but i appreciate that. As i said, we have actually done this before. Chairman pai and myself. And really, the only difference today is i have a bigger chair here for you. Because of your new office. By the way, i was looking around earlier and i didnt see it. Did you bring your weed whacker with you . I did not. I had a feeling it wouldnt travel well. So i left it at home. Okay, well, i mentioned that because it was at the foundations tenth Anniversary Gala back in december when thencommissioner now chairman pai, you know, offered that, whats now famous illusion to the weed whacker, referring to the regulatory brush at the fcc. And i noticed just last week, i think, john egerten, the reporter at broadcasting and cable, he said in reference to your weed whacker speech or reference to the weed whacker, he said that that term, quote, has gained cultural currency within and beyond communications circles. Thats quite a bit. Do you have anything else about the weed whacker you want to say before we move on . I think its probably best we move on at this point. All right. Okay. We do like to create cultural currency, things here at the prestate foundation conference. I thank you for that. So, ive had, as you know, ajit, had a House Majority whip for this same lunch conversation. We had several fcc commissioners. Other notables do this conversation, but never the chairman of the fcc. So im really honored to have you here. Thank you for having me. I do want to say just for the record, really, that each year that tom weir was chair of the commission, i did invite him to come and do the same thing or really do whatever he wanted to, and he, with a lot of advance notice, and he always declined. But i made a point of letting him know that he would be welcome. And that i would, of course, be my usual polite self. But he didnt come. But im really pleased that youre here as well. Well see how this goes. I dont want to be too hasty here. Youre not making any promises about next time . Well, you never know. Might get demoted to cspan8, the ocho, as its often known. Well see. Right now, were on cspan2. The dos. For those of you who want to watch the reruns. Okay, so again, a lot of us are familiar with your bio. Im just going to ask four questions. And were going to do the lightning round, so to speak, up front, as opposed to sometimes towards the end where i may have another one, because these are pretty straightforward questions. Did you always know when you were growing up that you wanted to be chairman of the fcc . Absolutely. Without question. What Indian American growing up in the late 70s wouldnt say, oh, of course, the chairman of the federal Communications Committee in 2017. I never would have anticipated it. Even coming out of law school, i didnt know what i was going to do. I thought i would be a lawyer in kansas city, and sort of testament not to my own skill and expertise, but the power of the American Dream that someone like me or anyone can aspire to such heights. Its really humbling and blessing and gratifying at once. I should say, you mentioned the 1970s. And i think we do have with us today actually an fcc chairman from the 1970s, dick wily, who is with us. [ applause ] and im always pleased when he joins us. And you know, im sure that there are probably youngsters watching cspan right now who are thinking, when i grow up, i want to be like ajit pai. Hopefully theyre saying i want to be like dick wily. Much more successful track record, and i think widely respected by everybody in this room and around the country. Okay. Now, more seriously, which one im emphasizing one of your previous decisions do you think best prepared you for the job of chairman, other than serving as commissioner . Thats a good question. So i have had a number of jobs, as you referred to. All of them prepared me in some way or another. Working on the hill helped me understand the political calculus that members of the hill employ. Working as a member of the judicial law clerk helps me understand how courts interpret laws and apply them. But the job that applied me the most was being deputy general counsel. Number one, from the substantive perspective, to give me a birds eye view on everything the agency was doing and help me understand the nuts and bolts of the commissions work from interpreting the Communications Act to understanding how foia and environmental law and fiscal law applied to the agency. Also from a managerial perspective, that was the first time i had a chance to manage a lot of people, and it gave me an experience that i think was very helpful to me, especially in my current role, when youre the chief executive officers of the entire agency. So i feel very blessed to have worked with my coworkers at the time, and little did i know the experience i would be detting would be extremely important in this current role. Okay. Which one person has been most influential in shaping your thinking regarding the way you approach your job at the fcc . Besides you . No, you can include me. Pro tip for the people watching, pandering to the host, always a wise move. No, i think there have been any number of people i worked for over the years. People i have come to know. Obviously, my family has been very supportive. One of the great things about this job is that you get to establish connections with the people who came before you. And one of the connections i have been very grateful to make, in addition to dick wily, who has been a longtime friend, is bill canard, president clintons second fcc chair until 2001. He was the chair during time of great change in the industry. The teleCommunications Act was barely on the page when he ascended to the chairmanship. A time of political polarization. I really admired at the time and have come to appreciate it more now than i have gotten to know him, the way he led the agency. He and others like him serve as a model of leadership and i would be very fortunate after my time is done that people would mention me even in the same breath as them. I agree. I have a great fondness for bill and the job he did. The last in this series of one questions is what one personality trait of jours will be most successful to succeeding as chairman . Personality trait. From there, if i could divide it between the external and internal, what i would like to think i bring to the job is whats called in the federal paper a sense of energy in the executive. They called it, as you know, one of the key ingredients leading ingredients to good government. And thats something i think the Agency Benefits from, i like to think, having a chairman and commissioner to embrace the task is bigger. They put things on the agenda that are important and move them quickly. They try to bring a sense of dispatch and transparency. Thats something i enjoyed embracing and explaining to the outside world, that i really want to be an active chairman because i think the world isnt standing still and our roles cant stand still as well. Internally, one of the traits i would like to think i bring and you would have to ask my coworkers, just my genuine love for the agency. I love my coworkers. And its been such a privilege to get to work with them and know them. Even unsolicited sometimes, theyll send me emails. Last friday, with your indulgence, i got an unsolicited email saying not having met you as a commissioner, i didnt know what to expect from you as chairman. Quickly, you earned my confidence i look forwards to seeing how the agency develops. Im impressed with your knowledge and appreciation for all we do, even those in support roles like hr. Thank you for breathing hope into the agency and taking on the tough challenges youre facing. Im glad to be working for you as the head of our agency. Those are the kinds of things, it lifts my spirits honestly to know that i dont want to be one of these ceos who sits on the floor and doesnt know or care about what the many talented members of the fcc do. I really want them to enjoy what they do. I had a chance to meet with all of them at this point. Thats the message i tell them. I want you to have the same sense of enthusiasm when you get up in the morning and come to work that i do. Its gratifying to get feedback like that. Regardless of whether people agree or disagree with a particular policy position, at the end of the day, were striving for Public Interest and theyre all valued members of the team, if i could recognize anyone in the audience is currently or has been a member of the fcc, if you wouldnt mind raising your hand so i can salute you. Its really humbling to walk alongside them. In these labors. All right, appreciate that sentiment. And i know the audience does as well. I happen to serve the agency for three years myself, a long, long time ago. It was close in time to chairman wiley, and i often tell people, even my wife sometimes, that those years were some of the best professional years of my life. So i know everyone appreciates the way you express that sentiment. Thanks for that. Thank you, thanks to them. Lets talk about making the fcc great again, okay . Thats a joke. Okay. But lets start actually in this place. Theres a lot of, has been a lot of discussion, including quite a bit by you as well, and mike oreilly, i think, too, about the supposed loss of collegeality at the commission during tom wheelers years. So if you believe there was such breakdown in coliegeality, how did it manifest itself and what do you think the causes were . Because i assume that i know there were a lot of split votes, 32 votes, and i get that. But im sure that the fact that there were split votes in your mind in and of itself is not evidence of any lack of good faith by your fellow commissioners, so just talk some about what you perceived the problems, if there were any in collegeality back then, and then what you would like to do to restore a greater sense of collegiality during your administration. I appreciate the question. I will say that obviously, a lot has been written about this. A lot has been said about this. And i am honestly looking forward. I have a great deal of respect for my predecessor. I think we may have disagreed on a lot of policy issues, but thats just the nature of the process. Going forward, im focused on trying to create an environment in which any commissioner, any stake holder who wants to come to the agency feels he or she can have a fair hearing and thats by constitution who i am. I tend to be a pretty happy, optimist, engaging person. Even if my fellow commissioners and i are on the opposite side of an issue, i would hope they would say, yeah, at least he heard us out and explained why he was taking a different route. So thats the goal i have Going Forward. At the end of the day, we have an environment that is conducive to consensus more often than not. I asked this question almost every commissioner thats been in this chair, maybe yourself before, but its relevant to the collegiality issue, and i have been involved in efforts to try to change the sunshine act in some way to, you know, even aside from repealing it, there might be ways to modify that would be conducive to more collaboration. So you have been on the commission now for, you know, a long enough time that you ought to have an opinion on that. What say you about the sunshine act . I do think that some of the things you have talked about, that others have talked about, would be well considered. And i think often, the purpose of the sunshine act, which was very well intentioned, has actually worked to impede collaboration in a way that would benefit the american people. The example i always give is that when the commissioner is serving on the joint board, i still remember the telephone calls we would have with a variety of our state counterparts. It was remarkable that at the time, the commissioners and i, and no more than two of us could be on the call together. Two of us would be on the call, and our staffers would say its been 15 minutes. You have to jump off sore commissioner rosen can jump on. And since i wasnt on the call for that 15minute period, i would have to be briefed as to what happened in the call. Its sort of this random game of telephone that happens. Thats just a joint board. The more serious, not serious, but the more intense issues on a monthly basis were the agenda items, and there, too, three of us couldnt get together and just hash out a deal. It would be our staffs being delegating the authority to do that, then they would have to report back to us. And it was just very inefficient process. I think especially in the digital age, and especially now with some of the process reforms in terms of getting the items published three weeks in advance, i think a lot of the concerns that people have have been mitt gaded. I Hope Congress would take a more modern, forward looking view if it wants to reform the sunshine act. It sounds like if nothing else, the sunshine act runs up the telephone bill over there at the fcc, the way you describe it. So sticking with the process just a bit longer, and you anticipated just now, ajit, my next question. But before i ask it, i do want to say this, because i have been involved in other prestate scholars for a long time. Discussing process reform and offering some process reform as an in addition to the substantive matters were going to talk about, and i have to say in my book, youre to be commended for the way you tackle some of this right from the get go. You know, its more common, of course, to have another committee at the commission or someone study some of these things. So at least for my part, i appreciate the way that youve gotten off to a good start on process reform. And i guess the biggest, perhaps the one that is most important or at least most noted so far is the change in the way that draft items are handled in terms of releasing them to the public. And theyre now released at the time the items are circulated to the other commissioners, three weeks before the commission actually votes on the item. I should say the last week before the commission votes. Then thats whats called the sunshine period. And there are no outside contacts during that time. But the public has the draft order. And, you know, when i talked about this, you know, maybe its part of just being an old timer, but i always, you know, had some concerns about how it would affect the commissions work. And i think i even suggested doing it on an experimental basis, and you did in a relatively short experiment. Now that its been in effect, really i think what we all want to know is, how do you think thats working . What was considered this radical reform, really, because it was considered pretty radical before it was done. But specifically, when youre answering the question, talk about whether its putting an additional burden on the Communications Staff or the commissioners themselves. And in conjunction with that, has this new practice materially changed the nature or the quality of the presentations to the commission and the commissions Decision Making process as youve observed it so far . I think by and large its been a fantastic success. I never understood why the agency would only let the American Public see what it was doing after it had actually done it, and to me, it was the simple analogy to the hill, when a senator or representative introduces legislation, before the bill is voted on, before its referred to a committee sometimes, youll get to see the legislation on the internet, and everyone can understand what it is and debate it. It seemed to me that the fcc should take the same step with respect to the issues that the chairman puts on the agenda. For years, i talked about it. I was given reasons why it couldnt be done or shouldnt be done. In the second week, we did it. So the world has gone on. Things have actually worked out just fine. In fact, i hear from, one of the most heartening emails i get are some from just people who typically dont follow our proceedings or dont work in the field so much, but just citizens out there in runt wrae who say, thanks for publishing, i disagree with what you did, but at least i can see now what you were actually doing. So there, i think, openness and transparency has been significant. I dont think its too much for an agency that regulates one sixth of the National Economy to let the public know what its dieg in advance. As terms of the burden, its not been a burden at all. It focused the meetings they have in the weeks leading up to a meeting so instead of this hushed conversation where you have parties and the commissioner. We heard this might be in a paragraph, can you confirm this . It was restricted, you can describe what is nonpublic information. I cant confirm or deny it, but you might be on the right track. Its a strange game of wink wink nod nod. Here its all public. No innuendo, no spinning from the chairman, nothing other than the cold, hard text of the document along with a onesheet fact sheet that explains the item in plain english. For the staff, the burden has changed. I wouldnt say its increased but its changed. Previously, what would typically happen is the staff would work hard to get an item together. There would be circulated by the chairman three weeks in advance, then the staff would just wait for a week. And then two weeks. And sometimes even almost three weeks. For it to get d