Rockefeller Departure Adds to Commerce Committee Leadership Void
Sen. Jay Rockefeller won’t run for reelection after his term expires in 2014. The announcement came during his speech Friday in the Democrat’s home state of West Virginia. The departure of the five-term, 75-year-old senator will leave a significant leadership void on the Commerce Committee following the recent death of its most senior majority member, Hawaii’s Dan Inouye, and the likely departure of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who has been nominated as secretary of state. Though it’s too early to tell who will succeed Rockefeller as chairman of the committee, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., appears to be the most likely candidate if Democrats keep the Senate after the 2014 elections, media and telecom lobbyists said.
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As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Rockefeller said he’s worked hard to make phone bills “more truthful” and the Internet “more safe.” He described the Internet as a “large and looming problem that has everything to do with cybersecurity -- something which we seem not to be able to address in Congress -- which is wrong,” he said in his speech. Rockefeller was a leading advocate for better cybersecurity protection for private networks, and recently encouraged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to shore up federal networks from attack. As the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) floundered last session, Rockefeller appealed directly to executives at the nation’s Fortune 500 companies to seek solutions that would raise cybersecurity awareness in the private sector.
Rockefeller will leave a long legislative legacy on media and telecom issues, industry sources said. He authored the E-rate program to connect educational and library facilities to the Internet, and advocated giving parents and broadcasters more control over violent and indecent content in media and videogames. He also stumped for better privacy protections for children on the Web and sought to curb cyberbullying. Rockefeller helped reauthorize the America Competes Act in 2010 to increase U.S. investment in research and development and education for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Nelson’s spokesman said via email Friday the senator was “sorry to see his good friend Sen. Rockefeller retire” and would be “honored should circumstances ever allow his chairing that committee.” The spokesman added that “it’s a little early to talk about future leadership changes on the Commerce Committee except to say Sen. Nelson has long been a consumer advocate going back to his time as Florida’s insurance commissioner.” Nelson, who was sworn into his third term in the Senate last week, is the third-most-senior Democrat on the committee behind Sens. Kerry and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Boxer told reporters in November that she plans to stay on as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
If Nelson becomes commerce chairman next session that “doesn’t bode well for those who want reform of any kind,” said one Republican communications attorney who asked not to be named. “If you want reform you have to have a chairman who really wants it and [Nelson] has left virtually no fingerprints at the Commerce Committee,” he said. “This is a committee in which you are refereeing a lot of market share battles and it is not clear to me where [Nelson] stands one way or the other on these issues."
"With the top three committee Democrats and top four committee Republicans from last Congress all gone by 2014, there are enormous opportunities for new leaders such as John Thune to step up and offer new ideas, fresh thinking and energetic stewardship,” said Amy Mehlman, a Republican telecom lobbyist at Mehlman Capitol Strategies. Thune became the highest-seniority Republican on the Commerce Committee and a likely candidate to become ranking member following the unexpected retirement of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and the retirement of Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Olympia Snowe of Maine (CD Dec 7 p3). Republican members of the committee have not yet elected their ranking member for the 113th Congress. A Thune spokeswoman did not comment.
Rockefeller’s departure marks the “end of an era,” Dow Lohnes Vice President Pete Leon told us by email. “Having just lost Sen. Inouye and with Sen. Kerry moving to State, the Democratic side and Committee as a whole will be losing an enormous amount of institutional knowledge. The next two years will be about ensuring one of Sen. Rockefeller’s key education accomplishments, E-Rate, is not only maintained but strengthened to ensure schools and students have access to modern technology.” Verizon Senior Vice President of Federal Government Relations Peter Davidson said in a news release that Rockefeller’s “ongoing legacy in the area of telecommunications and technology -- from his early work to create the Universal Service Program to his more recent spearheading of successful legislation for a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network -- is profound.” Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials President Terry Hall said Rockefeller’s “strong commitment and support was absolutely essential in successful passage of this key legislation for public safety.” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said Rockefeller’s leadership on issues of telecommunications, trade and national security “has strengthened our nation, and his commitment to universal service, emergency communications, and public safety has improved the lives of all Americans.”