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Credit to Author: Sam Gustin| Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:31:41 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n Open internet advocates and Democratic lawmakers are mounting a last-ditch effort to remove Federal Communications Commission chief Ajit Pai over his anti-net neutrality stance<\/a>, just days before Pai is set to be approved by the Senate for a new term.<\/p>\n Since being elevated by President Trump to lead the FCC in January<\/a>, Pai has become the b\u00eate noire<\/i> of open internet advocates for a variety of anti-consumer actions, but none more so than his crusade to kill<\/a> federal rules protecting net neutrality, the principle that all internet content should be equally accessible to consumers.<\/p>\n Pai has served at the FCC since 2012, and Senate Republicans have scheduled a vote on Monday<\/a> to confirm him for another five-year term at the agency. Given the Republican majority in the Senate, Pai’s reconfirmation appears likely, but the naysayers are nevertheless working furiously to prevent that from happening.<\/p>\n During a blistering floor speech<\/a> on Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, portrayed Pai, a Republican former Verizon lawyer, as an industry stooge who has worked relentlessly<\/a> to deliver gift after gift to the nation’s largest broadband companies.<\/p>\n “Mr. Pai has a long track record of putting big cable before consumers, big corporations above small businesses, and pay-to-play over the free and open internet,” Wyden wrote in a blog post<\/a> accompanying his speech.<\/p>\n