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A Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission raised questions Thursday about actions the agency has taken under its Republican leadership to facilitate the $3.9 Sinclair-Tribune merger of the nation’s two largest TV broadcasters.

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel says she has serious concerns about the transaction that would see Sinclair Broadcast Group, with its reputation for disseminating hard-right news packages to local stations across the U.S., take control of Tribune Media. The merger would let Sinclair control over 130 stations affiliated with the four biggest broadcast networks in the U.S. — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The stations stretch across more than 100 markets, including 40 of the top 50 in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and political battleground states such as North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

“I am concerned the commission is gearing up to approve a transaction that will hand a single broadcast company the unprecedented ability to reach more than 70 percent of American households,” Rosenworcel told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington Thursday. “It hasn’t happened yet. But there are disconcerting signs.”

According to Rosenworcel those signs include FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision to resurrect the ultra-high frequency (UHF) discount — an FCC loophole in Congress’s national broadcasting cap limiting any one company from reaching more than 39 percent of the national audience. The discount allows broadcasters to count only 50 percent of the audience reached by stations broadcasting in UHF, a format considered weak and unreliable when the discount was enacted in the 1980s. The evolution of digital TV technology has eliminated the technological difference, and the Obama administration closed the loophole last year.

Sinclair, the largest owner of broadcast stations in the country, hovered near the cap when rumors swirled in March it may buy Tribune, the second-largest broadcaster. The FCC reinstated the UHF discount a month later, lowering Sinclair’s audience reach on paper to 24 percent and setting the stage for it to buy Tribune. Two weeks later the deal was announced, and if approved, will take Sinclair from 173 stations to 215 and allow it to reach 72 percent of American households.

“Before I returned to the Commission, the agency inexplicably resurrected an outdated and scientifically inaccurate system for tallying station ownership, known as the UHF discount,” Rosenworcel said. “It also reversed an effort to investigate joint sales agreements. Both steps helped speed the way for this transaction—which would combine two broadcasting giants: Tribune and Sinclair.”

Democrats aren’t the only ones concerned about the deal. Numerous conservative media outlets have expressed skepticism, including Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who met with Rosenworcel Wednesday to discuss Pai’s effort to get rid of a rule that requires TV and radio stations to operate studios in or near the communities they broadcast in, according to Politico. Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warned the rule would be a giveaway to Sinclair.

“I’m not alone in my concerns about the concentration that will result from this proposed transaction,” Rosenworcel said. “I’m not alone in my fear that it will do harm to the time-tested principles of diversity, localism, and competition. There is opposition across the political spectrum.”

The Democratic commissioner said she couldn’t “put it better than the Newsmax Group, which has warned that ‘a free and diverse press, a bedrock principle of American democracy,’ will be irreparably harmed by this merger.”

Even Pai, who Democrats accuse of bending over backwards to clear regulations for the merger, is growing frustrated with Sinclair’s boldness, according to RedState. The conservative news website reports a “media executive, one of a raft of right-wing media moguls who opposes the merger, says Sinclair Broadcasting has irked Pai and the FCC by treating it as a done deal, and displaying a ‘cocky’ attitude.”

The FCC chief was reportedly dissatisfied after the agency asked Sinclair for more information about how it would comply with FCC rules that forbid broadcasters from owning more than one of the top stations in any market. Sinclair’s reply lacked specifics, stating only it hired a consulting firm to ensure compliance.

“That, says the top conservative media executive, is being interpreted as a snub to Pai and a failure to treat his concerns as real and legitimate — and as Sinclair banking on its supposed goodwill with the Trump family to guarantee the merger proceeds with no major changes,” the report reads.

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A Senate committee advanced the nominations Wednesday of three Trump administration Federal Communications Commission appointees, including one controversial vote to approve a Republican FCC nominee to two terms.

Senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted without objection to renominate former Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and nominate Brendan Carr, currently the agency’s general counsel and a former staffer in Republican Chairman Ajit Pai’s office.

Rosenworcel was forced to vacate her seat in December after Senate Republicans — concerned former Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler might not leave with the Obama administration — refused to vote on her renomination. Wheeler stepped down in January, as is customary in a new administration, and President Donald Trump nominated Carr to finish out his term ending in June 2018, giving the FCC a two-Democrat, three-Republican majority.

But Wednesday’s vote wasn’t without drama. Pai, also up for renomination, received mostly nay votes from Democrats over his pending plan to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules, scoring renomination thanks to the committee’s 14 Republican majority.

Consensus all but evaporated when Republicans proposed to nominate Carr to another term after finishing Wheeler’s in June 2018, upsetting the tradition of pairing one Democrat with one Republican at the same time, in order to pass them without objection from either side.

Beyond breaking precedent, Democrats argued that because Commissioner Mignon Clyburn — the FCC’s only sitting Democrat — is nearing the end of her term and hasn’t decided whether to seek renomination, Republicans should wait to renominate Carr until there’s a Democrat to pair with him.

“Otherwise Mr. Carr will have received a term that will run six and a half years,” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said. “There would be no one to pair the new Democratic nominee with, and it would create something that was ahistorical.”

Ranking Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida noted that Carr would still be able to serve after his term expires in June 2018 until January 2019, based on agency rules that let sitting commissioners stay until the end of the current congressional session if they haven’t been renominated.

“So if we got into a situation that suddenly, the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not want [to vote in a Democrat], and Mignon Clyburn vacated the seat, we would have a three to one [Republican to Democrat] when in fact, the commission is supposed to be three to two,” Nelson said.

The same situation happened last year when McConnell refused hold a floor vote to nominate Rosenworcel, who’d already been approved by the committee. At the time, Republicans blamed Wheeler’s reluctance to announce a firm departure date following Trump’s election win (some speculated Wheeler would stay on through the end of his term to block Trump’s ability to appoint a Republican majority at the agency).

Nelson added it was his understanding that McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are working on a deal to package multiple Trump nominees into a floor vote, and that Carr’s nomination for only a single term would be included.

“Clearly there is no precedent for a second term being this long, of which you would throw the entire balance of the FCC, for which it was intended, out of whack if the majority leader did not allow the second minority vacancy to be filled,” he said.

Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell said she was opposed to two terms because of Carr himself. During a hearing in July, Cantwell questioned if Carr would be willing to break from the influence of Pai, his former boss, on pivotal agency votes.

“Mr. Carr is a former staffer of Ajit Pai’s, I want to make sure that as he gets on the commission, that he’s going to express his independent views,” Cantwell said. “So I would like to talk to him again after some length of time on the FCC.”

“I don’t trust the guy,” Cantwell later remarked in a hot-mic moment.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who chairs the committee on commerce, argued that a Clinton FCC appointee was nominated to two terms in 1997. Markey later pointed out that nominee was paired with a Republican FCC appointee.

The committee voted 14-13 to approve Carr for two terms, with all Republicans voting for and all Democrats against.

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The number of Trump administration agenda items that have escaped the specter of Russia is shrinking. During a congressional hearing Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission appointees seeking Senate approval were questioned about more than 300,000 fake comments from Russia meant to influence the Trump administration’s plan to repeal net neutrality rules.

Those 325,528 comments originating from one Russian address came up during the Senate confirmation hearing of three Trump appointees to the FCC, including the reconfirmation of Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Republican Ajit Pai. Pai voted against the Obama-era rules in 2015 and proposed a plan to repeal significant portions of them earlier this year.

Senator John Thune, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said 1.3 million comments came from international filers “with more than 300,000 coming from the same address in Russia in support of the 2015 Title II rules.”

“And there have been many other stories of fake or abusive comments being filed,” the South Dakota Republican said.

Ranking Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida agreed with a comment alluding to the Trump administration’s alleged ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“Isn’t it interesting we have to be concerned about comments being filed from Russia?” Nelson asked Thune. “It’s a new day.”

Pai expressed confidence the agency wouldn’t be swayed by illegitimate comments, and instead explained the FCC would ultimately be guided by standards set down in the Administrative Procedure Act. The law requires agencies adopt rules based not on the number of comments filed for or against a proposal, but on the factual and legal reasoning within.

“I do understand there have been concerns on all sides about the veracity of some of these comments,” the FCC chairman replied. “We’re ultimately guided by the substantial evidence test . . . has the agency collected evidence that a reasonable person would agree would be adequate to support whatever conclusions were ultimately made?”

The comments from Russia were uncovered along with another 300,000-plus from Germany, more than 100,000 from France, and almost 477,000 from the U.S. “but entered into the system as ‘international filer,'” data gathered on comments submitted to the agency from July 3 to July 12 indicates.

According to the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), the right-leaning non-profit that reported the comments, thousands of the comments “appear to come from fake email addresses and fake physical addresses overseas” and “came almost exclusively from the email domains Pornhub.com and Hurra.de (Germany).”

“At this point, the deception appears to be so massive that the comment process has been rendered unmanageable and meaningless,” NLPC President Peter Flaherty said. “More ominously, with hundreds of thousands of comments appearing to come from Russia, we must ask ourselves whether once again, Russian interests are attempting to sow chaos in U.S. official policymaking proceedings.”

Wednesday’s hearing wasn’t the first time fake comments came up in Congress. House Democrats asked federal investigators to look into a slough of fake comments submitted in support of the Trump administration’s plan to scale back the rules, some using real names and addresses of people who did not file comments.

Activists on both sides of the debate point to hundreds of thousands of fake comments against their positions. Congressional Democrats even question the FCC’s own transparency with regard to a cyberattack that crashed the agency’s online comment filing system. The crash followed a “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” segment opposing Pai’s plan in May.

Despite the allegations of fraudulent comments, FCC General Counsel Brendan Carr, Trump’s nominee to fill the open Republican seat on the commission and a former advisor in Pai’s office, said comments still have weight.

“I think it’s very important,” Carr said. “I think it shows the level of interest and the passion in this issue, and that’s something we need to be taking into account.”

Former FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was also on hand to answer questions in hopes of being confirmed to fill the Democratic seat she was forced to vacate in December. At the time, Republicans declined to reconfirm her appointment, preferring instead to give incoming President Donald Trump the choice to nominate her. He did so in June.

Rosenworcel didn’t shy from taking up her past positions. She expressed support for net neutrality and disagreed with Pai on issues like maintaining funding for the FCC’s E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries pay for high-speed broadband, as well as supporting FCC regulation of cybersecurity practices.

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President Donald Trump has renominated former Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat and net neutrality supporter, to take one of the two open spots at the agency in a move applauded by the broadband industry and consumer groups alike.

The White House announced the nomination in a late Tuesday release, months after the outgoing Obama administration renominated Rosenworcel, whose term expired at the end of December, and the Trump administration pulled that nomination in January.

Rosenworcel was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2011 and began her term in May 2012. Despite support from both Republicans and Democrats, her reconfirmation was held up in the Senate in part due to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s reluctance to give Republicans a firm departure date following Trump’s election win. Some speculated Wheeler would stay on through the end of his term to block Trump’s ability to appoint a Republican majority at the agency.

Despite Wheeler’s December pledge to step down immediately in exchange for Rosenworcel’s renomination, Republicans in the Senate allowed her term to expire. Until Tuesday night Trump had yet to nominate anyone to fill the two open seats on the FCC — one Democrat and Republican each. In the interim, Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly have rolled out an aggressive agenda to scale back Democratic policies including net neutrality. Rosenworcel voted in favor of the net neutrality rules in 2015.

Speculation rose last month Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the only Democrat left at the agency and the only one to vote for the net neutrality rules in 2015, may step down before the FCC votes to dramatically weaken those rules later this year. Her departure would leave the FCC without the quorum necessary to conduct major business (though some have quoted agency analysts saying Chairman Pai could use “obscure procedural tactics” to conduct business). Clyburn’s five-year term ends in June.

That’s one possible reason for Rosenworcel’s nomination, since Trump wouldn’t want to tie the agency’s hands with a 2-2 majority that would block Republicans from repealing net neutrality rules. But a Republican nomination may also be imminent according to Radio World, which recently reported a Trump administration source saying “the White House essentially said that Republican seat was Pai’s to recommend.” Pai is reportedly considering Brendan Carr, currently the acting FCC general counsel and a former staffer in Pai’s office.

Senate Republicans may wait for Rosenworcel’s Republican counterpart to be nominated before considering her.

Pai welcomed Rosenworcel back to the FCC Wednesday.

“I congratulate Jessica Rosenworcel on the announcement that President Trump will nominate her to serve another term on the Federal Communications Commission,” the agency chief said. “She has a distinguished record of public service, including the four-and-a-half years we worked together at this agency, and I look forward to working with her once again to advance the public interest.”

Pro-net neutrality groups including Public Knowledge praised Rosenworcel’s renomination.

“We congratulate Jessica Rosenworcel and look forward to working closely to promote competition and fairness to all Americans,” the group’s president, Gene Kimmelman, said Wednesday. “At a time when we face enormous challenges to prevent the FCC from undermining fundamental consumer protections, we are pleased that Senate Minority Leader Schumer and his colleagues indicate a commitment to fight for competition, protecting consumers’ pocketbooks and consumers’ rights by promoting nominees who will support our cause.”

Broadband and cable lobbyists including the premier cable trade group NCTA, whose members include Comcast and Fox, congratulated Rosenworcel.

“During her first term as Commissioner, Jessica proved to be an outstanding public servant who championed policies that enable American consumers to benefit from the tremendous changes taking place in the communications and technology marketplace,” NCTA President Michael Powell said. “We share Jessica’s passion for promoting policies that close the digital divide and ensure that all Americans, especially students, have access to the many benefits that the internet offers.”

Rosenworcel’s nomination will need approval from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chaired by South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune.

“I publicly supported Commissioner Rosenworcel’s confirmation last Congress, and I continue to appreciate her service,” Thune said last year. His committee eventually confirmed Rosenworcel, but never made it to the Senate floor for a chamber-wide vote.

Rosenworcel supported the majority of Wheeler’s Democratic agenda, but she parted ways with her majority last fall when the FCC sought to rewrite the rules of the cable set-top box market, which would have allowed third-parties to build boxes to compete with those rented to subscribers by cable companies. The proposal gave the FCC power over licensing agreements between cable providers and the third-party device manufacturers they would have to offer their content on — a provision Rosenworcel disagreed with.

Her no-vote kept Wheeler from advancing the proposal, angering congressional Democrats and giving her some support from Republicans in the midst of her renomination fight. Democrat Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon said they put a hold on Rosenworcel’s renomination after her no vote, but quickly retracted it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York formally submitted Rosenworcel to the White House as his recommendation to fill the Democratic seat. The White House typically nominates seats for the opposing party based on the recommendation of the Senate.

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Republicans in Congress asked the new head of the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday to abandon a proposal to make cable providers offer content on apps instead of forcing subscribers to rent set-top boxes.

The proposal is aimed at giving cable and satellite TV subscribers an alternative to paying monthly fees to rent boxes from Comcast, Verizon and others. Those fees cost the average American household $231 annually, according to congressional Democrats. It would also allow third parties like Google to build and sell set-top boxes, on which subscribers could download apps from their TV provider and view content.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have opposed the rules since introduced by former Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler last year. They asked his newly named successor, Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai, to close the proceeding Wednesday.

“We are writing to ask that you close the docket on the set-top box proceeding,” Chairman Greg Walden wrote to Pai, “and signal clearly to consumers, content producers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and video programming distributors that the commission’s consideration of its set-top box proposal is at an end.”

The letter was signed by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who chairs the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology that frequently oversees the FCC, and echoes arguments they lobbed at Wheeler on the plan’s potential to harm copyright, advertisers and minority programmers.

“Cable, satellite and over-the-top video services are innovating, bringing their services to apps on new platforms, and responding to consumer demand,” the letter reads. “We should be fostering that kind of consumer-focused innovation, not mandating a one-size-fits-all ‘innovation.'”

The agency scheduled a vote on the plan last year, but Wheeler failed to get the votes necessary for passage from one of his two Democratic colleagues. Former Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented over a proposal to establish a licensing body at the FCC to review contracts between pay-TV providers and the third-party device manufacturers they would have to offer their apps on.

Pai and his Republican colleague Commissioner Michael O’Rielly agreed. Last year Pai said the two-year delay on the plan’s implementation will leave it lagging far behind technology “moving away from set-top boxes” in favor of video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. A proposal focusing on hardware, he said, could slow the app-based direction of the industry.

“Our goal should not be to unlock the box; it should be to eliminate the box,” Pai said. “If you are a cable customer and you don’t want to have a set-top box, you shouldn’t be required to have one. This goal is technically feasible, and it reflects most consumers’ preferences — including my own.”

Pai said previous FCC regulation in the set-top box market shaped the current system, which costs Americans $20 billion a year in rental fees and $500 million in kilowatt hours in energy consumption, “enough to power all the homes in Washington, D.C. for three months.”

He added multichannel video programming distributors and electronics manufacturers are unlikely to agree on video formats, specifications and standards that would make third-party boxes workable.

“The odds are probably better that Mark Zuckerberg will agree to Kanye West’s request for $1 billion,” Pai joked at the time.

In response to Wednesday’s letter, pro-net neutrality group Public Knowledge asked Pai to support reform.

“Despite the FCC’s recent efforts on this issue, the law has not been enforced and consumers continue to be burdened by a multi-billion dollar set-top box ripoff,” PK Senior Counsel John Bergmayer said. “Chairman Pai should continue the FCC’s work to bring consumers relief in this matter.”

Television provider heavyweights like Comcast and Verizon have begun offering limited content on mobile applications. Last year, DirecTV launched the most competitive offering to date, DirecTV Now, which offers a limited time entry price of $35 monthly for 100 live-streamed channels aimed specifically at cord-cutters.

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Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai will be named permanent chairman of the agency according to multiple reports Friday, confirming speculation he’ll take the reigns from former Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler as he departs with the Obama administration.

Pai is the senior Republican at the agency and was tapped by former President Barack Obama to join the FCC in 2012. Much of his tenure since has focused on opposing Wheeler’s agenda, including net neutrality, expansions to FCC privacy authority and the agency’s Lifeline phone and internet subsidies for poor Americans. All were passed along partisan lines.

“It is time to bring more openness and transparency to the FCC,” Pai said after the election last year. “From publicly releasing the text of documents we vote on at public meetings to establishing an FCC Dashboard with key performance metrics, we can better enable the public to know what and how we are doing.”

The agency’s new chief also opposed plans to let third parties enter the cable set-top box marketplace, regulate rates for high-capacity business broadband services, and limit free data offerings for certain video providers by wireless carriers, none of which came to a vote.

Aside from opposing what he and fellow Republican Commissioner Michael O’Rielly described as a partisan agenda that frequently left them in the dark, Pai championed efforts to expand broadband into rural areas like his home state of Kansas. He’s also laid out suggestions for the agency and Congress to work together on bringing startups and entrepreneurs to those traditionally underserved areas.

Pai supported Wheeler in efforts to break ground on new technologies like opening up airwaves for future 5G networks, and has led an independent investigation into Lifeline fraud and abuse by wireless carriers.

As chairman, Pai will likely seek to roll back many aspects of Wheeler’s agenda especially with regard to net neutrality, rules he and O’Rielly have already stated they plan to “revisit … as soon as possible” with their new majority.

“We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation,” he said in December, adding Republicans would shift to “going on offense” in the Trump administration.

President Trump has reportedly signed off on a plan from his FCC transition team to transfer competition and consumer protection to the Federal Trade Commission, a move consistent with opinions and policies Pai has expressed. His chairmanship will likely give greater deference to Congress over taking the agency into uncharted territory.

Wheeler spent his last days at the agency laying out a defense of any Republican walk-back of his legacy, and net neutrality advocates on Capitol Hill echoed those positions after learning of Pai’s promotion Friday.

“We need an FCC that protects consumers, promotes competition, and spurs innovation,” Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said Friday. “I will vigorously oppose any efforts by leadership at the FCC to undo net neutrality and broadband privacy rules, undermine E-Rate, or roll back any fundamental consumer protections.”

As a sitting commissioner, Pai will not undergo a confirmation hearing in the Senate. He will however face reconfirmation next year, a process that unseated his Democratic colleague Jessica Rosenworcel in December. Trump has yet to appoint her Democratic replacement or another Republican to serve on the five-member commission.

The FCC’s only remaining Democrat and net neutrality supporter, Mignon Clyburn, gave a defense of the rules at CES 2017 in earlier January.

While the rules aren’t perfect, she said, they do “provide the type of opportunities that edge providers, those on the floor, people in the hamlets of the country that do not currently have opportunities that may have opportunities now, with a more streamlined infrastructure framework.”

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced Thursday he will leave the agency with the Obama administration in January, setting the Trump administration up for a Republican majority already vowing to undo Wheeler’s legacy on day one.

The announcement came shortly before the FCC’s December open meeting and almost a week after the Republican-controlled Senate left town without reconfirming fellow Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whose term ends at the beginning of January. The departure of two of the agency’s three-Democrat majority ensures Republican control that conservative groups were skeptical Wheeler would give up.

“Serving as FCC chairman during this period of historic technological change has been the greatest honor of my professional life. I am deeply grateful to the president for giving me this opportunity,” Wheeler said in a statement. “It has been a privilege to work with my fellow commissioners to help protect consumers, strengthen public safety and cybersecurity, and ensure fast, fair and open networks for all Americans.”

Wheeler’s work included passage of landmark net neutrality rules reclassifying internet service providers (ISPs) as public utilities and barring them from segregating web traffic, strict privacy rules for ISPs and expanded funding and the inclusion of broadband service to the Lifeline phone subsidy program for low-income Americans, often described by Republicans as the “Obama phone” program.

Those and other divisive rules were passed along 3-2 party line votes Wheeler set a modern record with, a record Republicans say will be easy to dismantle when they take control next year.

“Like his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes, Chairman Wheeler brought passion and tenacity to the playing field each and every day,” Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Despite our differences in many areas of communications policy, I commend him for his years of public service. It has been a privilege to serve alongside him, and I wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Either Pai or his Republican colleague Commissioner Michael O’Rielly will take over as chairman after Wheeler’s departure, and begin a “shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense” and “remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation,” according to Pai.

Republicans declined to renominate Rosenworcel in part over fears Wheeler would stick around until the end of his term in 2018, blocking Republicans until Trump could nominate a Republican replacement for Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn when her term expires in June. Wheeler laid their concerns to rest Thursday, following through on his pledge to lawmakers earlier this year to ensure a smooth transition and giving Republicans a 2-1 majority on January 20 when Trump takes office.

“It’s been an honor, a privilege and a wild ride serving here as commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission,” Rosenworcel said during Thursday’s meeting. “Thank you to the chairman for what has undeniably been an activist agenda.”

In a press conference following the meeting Wheeler said he gave Senate Republicans assurance he would follow precedent and ensure a smooth transition earlier this year. It wasn’t his lack of a departure date that sank Rosenworcel’s renomination, the chairman said, but rather Republicans including Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s call for a day-one majority.

“I know this will surprise you — I had hoped for another outcome, and working with that transition,” Wheeler said, indicating he may have stayed on longer to work with a Hillary Clinton FCC. “But the American people decided they wanted something else, and I’ve stuck with my commitment.”

The chairman said he’s already had meetings with Trump FCC transition team members including communications industry consultant, AEI fellow and net neutrality opponent Jeff Eisenach, but wouldn’t comment directly on how the next FCC should approach his legacy.

“I have strong feelings about the importance of government, the decisions we made and the over-simple, potentially harmful desires of those who have defined their success in terms of a return to policies that are unfit for the 21st century,” Wheeler said. “However this is not the forum for that discussion.”

In its last meeting chaired by Wheeler, the FCC voted to let wireless carriers replace outdated text telephone communications with internet protocol-based real-time text, which allows characters to be sent as they are created without hitting send and during voice calls. The changes will help those with hearing and vision disabilities, especially in the case of 911 calls.

With regard to what may be Wheeler’s last controversial act as chairman, he said the FCC was waiting to decide whether to charge AT&T with violating net neutrality until it receives a response from the carrier to its last letter. The FCC gave AT&T until today to respond to questions about its zero-rating DirecTV service, which it previously speculated ran afoul of net neutrality rules against anticompetitive practices and web traffic prioritization.

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Senate Republicans left town for the last time in 2016 Saturday without renominating Democratic Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel — a move they’ll likely regret if Chairman Tom Wheeler decides to stick around into next year.

Lawmakers barely made a deadline to pass a bill funding the government from Saturday into next spring before recessing until next year, at the same time foregoing their last chance to renominate Rosenworcel and concluding the year-long battle over her reconfirmation. Her term expires before the new Congress is scheduled to begin on Jan. 3.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly circulated a motion for cloture on Rosenworcel’s vote Thursday but didn’t file it on the Senate floor, setting her nomination up for a last-minute Saturday vote. That left a unanimous consent vote as their only option, which many predicted was unlikely given the number of Republicans that have stalled her vote for the last year over Wheeler’s hesitancy to give his own departure date.

Multiple outlets including The Hill reported Thursday Wheeler finally gave that assurance earlier this week to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, saying he would “step down immediately” if Republicans would approve Rosenworcel for another five-year term at the FCC.

The same day Thune told Morning Consult it could be too late for a pledge from Wheeler, who’s waffled on direct questions from Thune and others on whether he’ll follow precedent and step down at the beginning of the new administration.

“My sense is that we’re kind of up against the clock now,” Thune said. “And it’s going to be very hard, even if Wheeler was agreeable to stepping down, to be able to get all this done between now and the time we go out.”

Though Thune’s committee approved Rosenworcel a year ago other Republicans including Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin oppose her renomination altogether, preferring instead to let Trump fill her seat after he takes office in January and give the FCC a 2-1 Republican majority in the meantime.

Republicans may come to regret their chosen course if Wheeler decides to stay on at the FCC, something he could do well into 2018 when his term expires. Rosenworcel, a former Senate staffer with support on both sides of the aisle, has demonstrated a willingness to break from Democrats and work toward the middle, opposing one of Wheeler’s landmark agenda items to shake up the set-top box market. She ultimately forced the chairman to drop the proposal staunchly opposed by Republicans at the last minute.

Wheeler, who’s set a 20-year record for the most party line votes in modern commission history, is unlikely to be so accommodating to Republicans’ agenda — a wish list Trump FCC transition team members and Republican FCC Commissioners have already signaled will start with a rollback of Wheeler’s legacy, including its cornerstone, net neutrality.

“On the day that the Title II Order was adopted, I said that ‘I don’t know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future commission. But I do believe that its days are numbered,'” Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai said Thursday. “Today, I am more confident than ever that this prediction will come true.”

Wheeler, already reticent in committing to leave, has signaled he may not let his legacy be undone without a fight. The chairman blasted Republicans for calling on the agency to halt the passage of major rules until Trump takes office, and last week moved to make what could be a precedent setting enforcement action against AT&T for zero-rating, which the agency is on the verge of deeming a violation of net neutrality.

Either Pai or his Republican colleague Commissioner Michael O’Rielly will take over as chairman next year, but remaining Democrat Mignon Clyburn and Wheeler, should he choose to stay, will have equal voting power until Trump appoints another Republican. Trump and congressional Republicans’ aggressive day one agenda of funding the government and repealing the Affordable Care Act could stall yet another confirmation vote, giving the two Democrats the potential opportunity to block Republicans into 2017.

As Thune himself noted Thursday, it appears Wheeler thus far “wasn’t in any hurry to get out of there.”

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Conservative groups are warning the U.S. Senate against taking up a stalled vote to renominate a Democratic Federal Communications Commissioner, a move they say would give Democrats equal or majority control of the agency into the start of the Trump administration.

Several free-market groups, led by the conservative tech policy think tank Tech Freedom, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid Monday, asking the party leaders to delay a vote on the renomination of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

“‘Elections have consequences’, as [FCC] Chairman Wheeler himself crowed last summer,” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said. “The American people ‘have chosen their path,’ and Republicans have every right to take control of the FCC on Inauguration Day.”

Szoka said Wheeler, who has yet to announce when he will depart the agency, “should, like nearly all FCC chairmen before him in this situation, resign on or before Inauguration Day.” His noncommittal responses to Republicans in Congress on whether he will leave at the start of the new administration have prompted the majority to put a hold on the full chamber vote to renominate Ronsenworcel, who will have to step down at the end of the year otherwise.

Wheeler will have to step down as chairman regardless once Trump takes over, but could technically stay on until his term ends in November 2018.

Reconfirming Rosenworcel in the lame duck would mean deadlocking the agency into 2017. Worse, they warn, is if Wheeler declines to step down, leaving Democrats in control until June 2017 when Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s term expires, giving Trump the chance to appoint a Republican to replace her alongside Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly to claim the majority.

“Any deadlock could significantly delay the lengthy and complex process of FCC reform,” the letter reads. “The window for legislative action before the midterm elections will be far shorter than most realize. Congress will not really be able to take up the issue in earnest until the FCC’s new Republican chairman has had an opportunity to begin voting out his agenda. Having waited two decades to pick up where the 1996 Telecom Act left off, we simply cannot afford to miss this narrow window for reform.”

The groups aren’t opposed to Rosenworcel keeping a seat at the agency, but “absolutely not before Wheeler has actually left the Commission.”

“Commissioner Rosenworcel should absolutely be returned to the commission, but not until a third Republican can be added,” Szoka added. “This is not to slight Rosenworcel at all. Despite our vast differences on policy matters, we have respected her integrity and independence. But there is simply no way to reconfirm her now without creating an imbalanced or deadlocked commission.”

The groups say Rosenworcel should take a short hiatus from the FCC with Wheeler moving her staff into other positions temporarily.

Rosenworcel helped Wheeler approve rules vehemently opposed by Republicans, including net neutrality and strict privacy rules for internet providers. She’s been reconfirmed by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee charged with overseeing the FCC but is still awaiting a shrinking and increasingly unlikely window to receive a vote by the full chamber.

Her renomiantion was futher complicated last month when Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon placed their own holds on Rosenworcel, who they blamed for stalling the set-top box vote and dissenting on a proposal to use more Universal Service dollars to expand rural mobile broadband networks as part of the FCC’s Mobility Fund. Those holds have since been removed.

Wheeler has repeatedly advocated to Senate Republicans for Rosenworcel’s renomination, but he blasted those same lawmakers last month after they warned the chairman against passing more major rules along partisan lines ahead of the new administration. The warning forced Wheeler to back down from new price caps for the business broadband market and make it all but certain his plan to unlock the set-top box market will be dead on arrival at the next FCC.

Letter writers similarly urged the new Congress to move quickly on confirming a Republican for the Federal Trade Commission after Democratic Chairwoman Edith Ramirez steps down. The FTC, already short two commissioners, will also be deadlocked 1-1 come January until Trump appoints a Republican.

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