 On 18 February 2014, the Obama administration replied to the petition.It stated that although the President "vigorously supports" a robust, free and open Internet, he was not able to direct the FCC to do that because the FCC is an independent agency.On February 19, 2014, Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC, issued a statement responding to the court's decision and laying out their intentions for the future of network neutrality.