HOISTED: FCC Chairwoman Asked to Stop Work by Senator Cruz– And There’s a Petard Involved

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The phrase “hosited upon her own petard” has enjoyed unlikely survival throughout the ages, seemingly for the purpose of being deployed at this precise moment.

Back in 2020 then FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel made a brief but consequential statement to sitting Chairman Ajit Pai: stop work now that Biden is coming into office.

Now, with the tables entirely turned, the now Chairwoman is being hoisted upon that petard as Senator Cruz seemingly delights in citing her to herself in his “pencil’s down” letter from last week:

The letter reads:

“To honor the will of the American people and the policy mandate given to the incoming administration, I request the FCC and all of its bureaus and offices immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial matters under consideration or in progress and focus only on matters that are uncontroversial or require action under the law. This course will follow the norms set during past transfers of power.”

Fine, but the letter continues:

I note that you have previously advocated this position by welcoming calls from congressional leaders for the FCC to “paus[e] any controversial activity” and by urging previous FCC chairmen “to follow this past practice in order to ensure an orderly transition…”1 I ask that you respect this time-honored tradition now. 

I don’t know if Cruz is a smirker, but you can certainly imagine a rye smile creeping across his face as he signed this thing.

Now, will the FCC heed this call and what does it mean for the new TCPA one-to-one rule and revocation rulings?

I guess you’ll have to tune in on Thursday to find out!

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

2 Comments

  1. “Now, will the FCC heed this call and what does it mean for the new TCPA one-to-one rule and revocation rulings?”

    Let me help to answer that. No. They were asked to stop work on “controversial activity”. The 335 million Americans bombarded by these nonstop calls are all in favor. Its only the violators of the law that are opposed and think this is controversial.

    Reply

  2. Well, the Czar opines that the TCPA is unconstitutional, as telemarketers have the Czar-given right to engage in freedom of speech and expression in harassing those 335 million consumers. If they do not want to receive telemarketing calls, then they should not have a telephone. (Sarcasm intended.)

    Reply

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