6 changes the FCC has made in just six weeks

In just six weeks under the Trump administration, the Federal Communications Commission has quickly made its mark on issues such as Net neutrality and online privacy.

Response to the actions taken by the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, has been sharply divided. That was clearly evident Wednesday during the Senate Commerce Committee's oversight hearing on the agency.

Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he was "heartened" that Pai had pledged to lessen partisanship among the commission and to increase transparency with public posting of issues before the FCC prior to its meetings. "Counter to the trend of Chairman Pai’s recent predecessors, who often sought to amass as much power in the chairman’s office as they could, these simple steps instead empower the public and the other commissioners," said Thune in his prepared remarks.

But Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the committee's ranking Democrat, charged that the new chairman had weakened protection of consumers' online data, curtailed broadband access for low-income Americans and "sent shock waves through schools and libraries across the country" with his revocation of a report about the E-Rate program that provides taxpayer funds for educational WiFi and Net connectivity.

"These are actions that directly impact the lives of millions of Americans," Nelson said. "I hope they are not a sign of things to come."

Here's some of what the FCC has done under Trump:

Set aside a key Net privacy rule. Last week, the FCC voted voted 2-to-1 to temporarily stay a data security regulation within a set of new privacy rules, passed in October 2016. That provision would have subjected Internet service providers (ISPs) to different privacy standards than web sites, apps and other Net players.

Ended Zero-Rating Investigation. An FCC report issued before Chairman Tom Wheeler left office in January found that free data plans such as AT&T and Verizon may violate the agency's Net Neutrality rules, officially called the Open Internet rules, passed in 2015. Last month, Pai ended the investigation, saying that the practices enhanced competition and were popular with consumers. But critics called the move an initial offensive on the Net neutrality rules as a whole.

Blocked approval of nine companies from Lifeline. Pai revoked the designation of nine companies as providers to the Lifeline plan, which subsidizes broadband service for low-income Americans. Like the Zero-Rating report, the Lifeline approval was a last-minute action by the Wheeler commission, Pai said at the time, and "should not bind us going forward."

Approved broadband and wireless access. The commission over the last month approved $2 billion to improve rural broadband access and $453 million to improve wireless connectivity in rural America and in tribal lands.

Made public items on its monthly agenda. Pai has begun posting the text of items to be considered by the commission on the agency's blog. In the past, Pai and fellow Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly criticized Wheeler for not making agenda items public.

Removed the set-top box rule from consideration. Before the first meeting he chaired, Pai removed from the agenda an order that would require pay-TV providers make free apps so subscribers could watch programming without a set-top box.

"It does seem that you have adopted the playbook of diminishing rules that protect consumers and furthering the interest of big businesses," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who then asked Pai for his rationale on allowing "cable companies to continue profiting from renting cable boxes."

Pai countered, "I believe, as many millions believe, that the right solution to this problem is not to double down on the 1990s technology of the set-top box, but is to eliminate the box."

Democrats also criticized Pai and the FCC for blocking privacy rules at a time when data breaches have become commonplace. However, ISPs would still be required to maintain privacy and provide data security and breach notifications under remaining regulations in the Communications Act, Thune said.

"Carriers would still have their obligations," Pai agreed, "in addition to other federal and state (rules)."

Thune also mentioned that 18 technology and telecommunications organizations had asked the Congress to repeal the privacy rules. Several consumer advocacy groups have publicly opposed the move.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., both asked Pai to denounce Trump's description as the media as "enemy of the American people."

“There’s a larger political debate here that I don’t want to wade into," Pai said. "All I can tell you is that I personally believe that every American enjoys the First Amendment freedoms that he or or she is granted under the Constitution."

Related:

FCC sets aside new Net data privacy rule

How Net Neutrality could get reversed (and what that means to you)

Net neutrality, beloved by Netflix, looks headed for the ax under Trump

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.