Clyburn Nomination Puts Pressure on Republicans to Pick Nominees
A White House statement of plans to nominate Mignon Clyburn to become an FCC commissioner may prompt Senate Republicans to pick their candidates for two other seats, industry and government sources said Thursday. Clyburn, a member of South Carolina’s Public Service Commission since 1998, isn’t well known in federal communications circles.
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Deborah Tate and Gloria Tristani were the only former state regulators of the past dozen FCC commissioners. Unlike them, Clyburn isn’t a lawyer. She ran the Coastal Times, a weekly newspaper in the Charleston area, for 14 years before she was elected to the state commission. Clyburn was the chair of NARUC’s Washington Action Program. NARUC and many other interest groups and companies put out statements praising her selection. Clyburn is the daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn, long a House member from South Carolina and now the Democratic whip.
Mignon Clyburn is an “unknown” whose “interest has been in energy and less in telecom,” Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said Tuesday at an American Cable Association conference.
“She’s got a lot of experience being a state commissioner,” said a former FCC official. “It’s probably very helpful to have a state commissioner on the federal agency. We've had them before.” The former official said FCC commissioners rarely have experience in everything they must regulate. For example, current Commissioner Robert McDowell had no exposure to media issues before he was named to the FCC but quickly learned them, the source said. Even Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who had been a Senate staffer on communications, had much to learn at the commission. “The key is to get a good staff,” the official said.
“State PUCs just don’t do much in the telecom area,” leaving some of that to the FCC, said broadcast lawyer Henry Rivera. “She does not have that pedigree,” said Rivera, a Democratic FCC member in the 1980s. “She is going to have to learn all that and caucus with her staff and her colleagues and see where she comes out on these things.” Rivera noted that Clyburn will be the first African-American woman on the commission. Her time running the Coastal Times, much of it as the only employee, has shaped her view of business, Rivera said. Being a former publisher “will serve her well as she addresses media-related issues,” NAB President David Rehr said.
Clyburn will bring a “very helpful” state perspective to the FCC, Adelstein said in an interview. “We have many issues that involve the states, and we always benefit from having a perspective that comes from the states on these issues.” He got to know Clyburn from her NARUC work. Adelstein is slated to leave the FCC when his appointment to lead the RUS is confirmed.
No one can sit on a state commission more than 10 years without exposure to telecom matters, said Curt Stamp, the president of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance and a former state commissioner in Iowa. The “upside” of her Clyburn’s light experience with telecom is that she will come into the FCC with an “open mind,” he said.
Republicans Under Pressure
The nomination could have a ripple effect on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans haven’t chosen a nominee to suggest to the White House, but the “process is under way,” said a spokeswoman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The Senate Commerce Committee hasn’t scheduled confirmations hearings for the candidates. But a senior aide to Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said his boss wants to move forward before the May recess with a hearing on Julius Genachowski, nominated to become the FCC’s chairman (CD April 29 p1).
Rockefeller supports Clyburn’s appointment, a committee spokeswoman said Thursday. The committee’s “intent is to move expeditiously to consider all pending nominees as soon as their paperwork is ready.” Republicans get two seats on the commission. It’s unclear whether current Commissioner Robert McDowell will be nominated to a full term on the commission. His term expires June 30.
A longtime industry lobbyist questioned whether the White House needs to wait for Republicans to recommend nominees before asking the Senate to confirm Genachowski and Clyburn. “If the White House is going to wait for the Republicans to give them a nominee, that would put a lot of control in the hands of the Senate Republicans,” the source said. “It would not surprise me to see the Senate Republicans delay in finding a nominee … and at the same time argue that the Democrats cannot move forward until there is a Republican nominee.” Democrats used the same tactic previously, the former official said.