Tom Wheeler's departure means that the FCC will start President-elect Donald Trump's administration with a 2-1 majority. | Getty FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to resign

Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday he will leave the agency Jan. 20, ending months of will-he or won’t-he speculation about his plans.

"Sitting in this chair has been the greatest privilege of my professional career," Wheeler said at a FCC meeting today. "When you put five Type A personalities together, lots of interesting things happen, including you will not always see eye to eye. The headlines got built around our differences, but the facts are that together we accomplished a lot."


His departure means the FCC will start the Trump administration with a 2-1 Republican majority, allowing the GOP to immediately begin dismantling Obama-era regulations.

While it is customary for FCC chairmen to resign at the start of a new administration, Wheeler had for months refused to publicly commit to stepping down when Obama leaves office. While he repeatedly said he would ensure a smooth transition, Republican lawmakers seized on the issue to hold up the confirmation of his fellow FCC Democrat, Jessica Rosenworcel — a move Senate Democrats said violated a deal made with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a year before. The Senate did not approve Rosenworcel for a new term before it left town for recess last week, and she will have to leave the commission by Jan. 3.

With Wheeler departing next month, chief among the GOP targets are Wheeler's net neutrality rules, passed last year, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. The rules reclassify broadband akin to a utility making it subject to stricter oversight. Republicans called the regulations burdensome on companies, and the telecom industry has sued — so far unsuccessfully — to overturn them.

A former lobbyist for the wireless and cable industries and an Obama fundraiser, Wheeler was tapped to lead the commission in 2013. His nomination was initially met with scorn from some public interest groups who disliked his business ties, but Wheeler eventually followed a consumer-focused, activist agenda, and the trade groups he once represented — CTIA and NCTA — have been among the fiercest opponents of his policies, including net neutrality.

“When Tom Wheeler was named to head the FCC, we voiced serious reservations about how a former industry lobbyist could do the job," Craig Aaron, CEO of consumer advocacy group Free Press. "But he proved us wrong. We haven’t agreed with him on every decision, but time and again Wheeler showed a willingness to stand up to industry pressure, listen to voices outside the Beltway and — perhaps most importantly — to change his mind."

Critics said Wheeler's habit of pushing through major items with party-line votes make his legacy vulnerable to being reversed by Republicans. The net neutrality rules as well as key proposals he advanced this year — creating privacy rules for internet providers and expanding the low-income Lifeline subsidy program to support broadband service — all passed in 3-2 votes without the support of the agency's GOP members.

“It would be disingenuous to suggest that we did not have significant differences with the direction the FCC took under Chairman Wheeler," Bob Quinn, AT&T senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, said in an emailed statement. "However, Chairman Wheeler has been a respected leader in the video and wireless industries for over 30 years with many accomplishments. Following that illustrious career, and when most people would have hung up their spikes, he chose to enter public service where he was a dedicated and tireless advocate."

Wheeler’s departure leaves several of his initiatives unfinished. His bid to boost competition in the cable box market stalled in September when it failed to gain enough support among the commission's Democrats for approval, and he yanked regulations meant to reform the business broadband market from a vote in November amid pressure from Republicans to avoid issuing new regulations in the lame-duck period.

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