Facing growing criticism over a plan to question journalists in newsrooms around the country to assess whether those journalists are meeting government-defined “critical needs,” the FCC on Friday announced that it is suspending a pilot program until the entire project can be redesigned. The pilot study was to have taken place in Columbia, S.C., in the district of powerful Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, whose daughter Mignon Clyburn is an FCC commissioner and an advocate of the project.

“[M]edia owners and journalists will no longer be asked to participate in the Columbia, S.C. pilot study,” FCC spokesperson Shannon Gilson announced Friday afternoon. “The pilot will not be undertaken until a new study design is final. Any subsequent market studies conducted by the FCC, if determined necessary, will not seek participation from or include questions for media owners, news directors or reporters.”