Picking up where former chairman Darrell Issa left off, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee has found his first witch hunt.
Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has launched an investigation into the FCC's plan to classify broadband internet as a public utility to determine if President Obama unduly influenced the decision.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Friday demanding all documents and communications between the FCC and the White House or other executive-branch agencies on the issue, along with all internal discussion at the FCC. [...]
“[R]eports indicate that views expressed by the White House potentially had an improper influence on the development of the draft Open Internet Order circulated internally at the Commission on February 5, 2015,” Mr. Chaffetz wrote.
It's possible the president's public campaign in favor of net neutrality influenced the committee, but it would be difficult to prove that it was an undue influence.
It's also possible that the 4 million (!) comments made to the FCC by the public had an influence. No issue in the history of the FCC had drawn more than 1.4 million comments prior to the debate over net neutrality.
It's also possible that classifying internet service providers as public utilities is a common sense decision made in the best interests of all Americans and businesses not named Comcast.
Not everything is an Obama conspiracy.