Inspector general investigating FCC leaks

The inspector general for the Federal Communications Commission opened an investigation in April into the leak of private information ahead of a vote to offer Internet subsidies to low-income Americans. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he is cooperating with the probe and believes information about the agency's deliberations was shared outside the agency. “I intend to fully cooperate with this investigation and look forward to its findings,” Chairman Wheeler wrote to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD).

The inquiry involves the hectic time before the vote in March, when a deal to change Chairman Wheeler’s proposal quickly came together but then fell apart. The vote by the five commissioners was delayed for more than three hours as backroom negotiations took place. Critics allege that Chairman Wheeler’s office leaked news of the potential deal to impose a firm $2 billion [sic] budget cap on the program, called Lifeline, in order to scuttle the deal. Chairman Wheeler’s Democratic colleague Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who negotiated the deal in order to bring Republicans on board, received intense lobbying from Democrats on Capitol Hill the day of the vote. She eventually reversed course, and the FCC ended up passing the original proposal without GOP support. Chairman Wheeler did not acknowledge that his office leaked the information, but he noted that the chairman’s office has the ability to release private information “if it is in the interest of the agency.” Chairman Wheeler pointed out that Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai’s office publicly released that same information that day. But the public statements from the Republican and his office came after the deal had already fallen apart.