No. The FCC is an independent (not executive) federal agency, and ultimately serve at the pleasure of the Congress. Congress granted FCC their statutory authority to regulate (and can revoke it).
FCC commissioners go through presidential appointment and senate confirmation, and almost always has as a 2-1 or 3-2 party split. This DOES make the Commission's direction subject to different political winds than just the executive, or just the Congress. But that doesn't make them under the executive any more than that confirmation process makes the judiciary part of the executive.
> No. The FCC is an independent (not executive) federal agency, and ultimately serve at the pleasure of the Congress. Congress granted FCC their statutory authority to regulate (and can revoke it).
While this is generally an important distinction, I'm not sure it really matters in this case. The point is we have a new president and thus new FCC chairman and commissioners, and thus a new FCC policy. If Obama and the democratic congress he had had passed a law mandating net neutrality, Ajit Pai would have a much harder time "fast-tracking" a repeal of net neutrality.
FCC commissioners go through presidential appointment and senate confirmation, and almost always has as a 2-1 or 3-2 party split. This DOES make the Commission's direction subject to different political winds than just the executive, or just the Congress. But that doesn't make them under the executive any more than that confirmation process makes the judiciary part of the executive.