Pai Dismisses Democrats' Concerns of Industry Dominance on CSRIC

A majority of members of the current iteration of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council come from the private sector because “qualified individuals who are nominated” to the group “may often be employed in the private sector because of the complex technical matters that CSRIC is asked to address,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. The letters dated Jan. 3 were released Friday. Warren and Jayapal in June questioned “the extent to which” CSRIC “may be inappropriately dominated by industry insiders” given 13 of the current CSRIC iteration’s 22 members are from the private sector (see 1907010029). Two CSRIC members are associated with a communications sector trade group, six are from federal agencies and one is from a civil society group. CSRIC was rechartered in early 2019 for its seventh two-year iteration (see 1904160061). The agency “considers [CSRIC] nominees based on criteria for implementing the Federal Advisory Committee Act -- namely, whether the entities represented by the nominees would be directly affected by the matters likely to be addressed by the CSRIC and whether the nominees are qualified and have relevant experience,” Pai said. “The complex topics” before the current panel “affect industry segments … in different ways. Consequently, CSRIC members employed in the private sector often have differing interests and perspectives.” There's “rarely, if ever, a uniform ‘private sector’ position on the issues that come before the CSRIC,” he said. “The FCC considers these differing points of view from various industry sectors when balancing the expertise and viewpoints of the CSRIC membership.” The commission “further balances and includes diverse points of view through the inclusion of state, local, federal, and Tribal governmental entities; public safety organizations; and consumer and community organizations,” Pai said. “To promote diversity in its membership, the FCC also strives to select members from different areas of the country, with differing expertise, and representing organizations of different sizes.”