Today, the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of its net neutrality rules officially goes into effect. Internet service providers will now be free to block, throttle, or create fast lanes and slow lanes by charging websites extra fees to prioritize their content.

On May 31, 2018, Common Cause joined Public Knowledge in a letter urging the FCC to provide transparency as to why the agency’s education and outreach technology transition rules from 2016 never went into effect. The rules require telecommunications carriers to provide education and outreach to their customers when they are seeking to replace their legacy phone network with a new service. The rules are specifically tailored to ensure the most vulnerable communities including low-income, the elderly, and people with disabilities have the information they need to understand what to expect when their legacy voice service is discontinued. The FCC now seeks to eliminate these rules with the rationale that they never went into effect and are burdensome. Common Cause strongly objects to the elimination of the education and outreach rules and urges the Commission to fully disclose why they never went into effect.

Today, Common Cause urged congressional oversight committees to investigate and hold hearings on the Trump Administration’s interactions with Chinese government officials and ZTE, a company that violated trade sanctions with Iran and has been deemed a security threat by U.S. intelligence agencies.

President Trump announced via Tweet that he will pardon Dinesh D’Souza signaling again his contempt for the rule of law. D’Souza pleaded guilty several years ago to violating our nation’s campaign finance laws with a “straw donor” scheme that violated federal candidate contribution limits and the public’s right to know who is spending money to influence our elections. The President has taken to boasting about pardons of convicted criminals. His previous pardon of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop his department’s racial profiling and harassment of Latinos during patrols. Trump’s action sends yet another dangerous signal that he will abuse his power to protect those who would subvert the rule of law, including the laws that protect the integrity of our democracy from corruption.

Common Cause and 25,213 of its members and supporters have filed formal comments urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to adopt the stronger of two proposals (Alternative A) to update its rules by requiring online political advertisements to include “paid for by” disclaimers currently required for TV, radio and print ads. Common Cause joins a coalition of pro-transparency organizations delivering to the FEC comments from more than 100,000 people urging the adoption of stronger online ad disclaimer rules.

Tomorrow’s White House briefing by law enforcement and intelligence officials to discuss a confidential informant’s interactions with Trump campaign officials in 2016 cannot be a closed partisan meeting and must include members of both political parties through the “Gang of Eight.” Despite President Trump’s assertions on Twitter, the entire U.S. intelligence community has concluded beyond a doubt that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. And it has been widely documented that numerous members of the Trump campaign, including the President’s own son, took meetings throughout the campaign with Russians and other foreign nationals offering assistance to the campaign.