Industry Hoping for White House Nomination Soon for Vacant GOP FCC Commissioner's Seat
Industry lobbyists are hopeful President Donald Trump will announce a nominee as soon as this week for the remaining GOP FCC seat but hadn't received additional signals to indicate a nomination announcement was imminent. Chatter increased since the White House formalized Jessica Rosenworcel’s nomination last week to again be a Democratic commissioner (see 1706140065).
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The White House had “no personnel announcements,” a spokesman said Monday. An official said earlier an announcement about a nominee for the vacant GOP FCC seat was “imminent.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., also had nothing new to report on the topic, a spokesman said. Thune previously said he was hopeful a nomination for the vacant GOP seat would occur soon after the Rosenworcel nomination, given his strong preference to pair the two nominees as traditionally happens (see 1706150072).
FCC General Counsel Brendan Carr remains the front-runner and nothing that has occurred in the days since the White House’s Rosenworcel announcement has diminished that view within the communications sector, an industry lobbyist said. Lobbyists also noted there have been no signs since last week that the White House is ready to publicly name Carr. A move forward on Rosenworcel’s nomination has been seen as a prerequisite for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to allow movement on the Mobile Now Act (S-19) spectrum bill and other telecom legislation.
“I think they’ll move quickly” on Rosenworcel and the eventual GOP nominee once the White House announces him, a telecom lobbyist said. That lobbyist said it would make sense for the White House to name Carr or someone else to the FCC vacancy this week, given administration’s framing of its “tech week” events, which include a Monday American Technology Council meeting (see 1706190062) and a planned Thursday Office of Science and Technology meeting on emerging technologies.
It “smells like things will move quickly” given expectations that the White House would want to swiftly move a GOP nominee forward to pair with Rosenworcel, said public interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman: “You’d think they would want to get the commissioners situation squared away,” particularly given the need for the Senate to reconfirm Pai to the FCC and speculation about whether Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will retire when her current term expires June 30 (see 1706140046). Said Schwartzman: “They need to get things moving because they’ll be looking at a confirmation for Pai before the end of the year.”