Jessica Rosenworcel

Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday (Nov. 18) that her planned refresh of the record on independent content providers’ access to distribution platforms will need to include over-the-top video.

The Senate Commerce Committee vetted the renomination of acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel for a new, five-year term today (Nov. 17) and nary was heard a discouraging word. If confirmed, President Joe Biden has signaled he will designate her permanent chairman, the first woman to hold that post. (Mignon Clyburn was the first woman to be acting chair.)

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a Nov. 17 nomination hearing for Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. She must be vetted and voted in before the end of the year or she would have to leave the commission since her term has already expired. But not on that hearing schedule is President Biden’s other nominee to the FCC, Gigi Sohn.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to consider President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the FCC next week but hold off consideration of his choice for a fifth commissioner who has drawn Republican criticism. The committee will hold a hearing on Jessica Rosenworcel’s nomination for a full term as chairwoman of the FCC on Nov. 17, according to a person briefed on the matter. A hearing is expected several weeks later for Gigi Sohn, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the procedure hasn’t been made public.

A city that has been looking, previously in vain, for a permanent Federal Communications Commission chair and third commissioner to bring the agency to a full complement, weighed in Tuesday following President Joe Biden‘s renomination of acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel — taking the “acting” from in front of her name — and tapping veteran progressive policy shaper Gigi Sohn to the third seat.

The White House, in a bid to avert a Republican majority over the regulator, also tapped former FCC official Gigi Sohn as a commissioner.

Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman of the powerful regulator, campaigned vigorously for a permanent appointment. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Rosenworcel would lead an agency whose responsibilities include ensuring that millions of Americans have internet access.

D.C. insiders are on the lookout for FCC nominations after Sen. Maria Cantwell (above) reportedly said last week that she was expecting them to come from the White House.

FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is not expected to be nominated by President Joe Biden to serve in the role on a permanent basis, people familiar with the matter said, because she is not liberal enough for the administration. Liberals say that by failing to choose a full-time chairman to the agency, Biden has signaled that the commission is not important to his agenda, while agency-related issues important to Democrats continue to linger, such as restoring net neutrality rules, increasing internet price transparency, scrutinizing major telecommunications mergers, and improving competition among internet providers.

A host of groups have been pressing President Joe Biden to finally name a chair of the FCC, specifically to take the “acting” from in front of the title of Jessica Rosenworcel, currently heading the agency on a temporary basis. It is not unusual for there to be an acting chair during the changeover in administrations, but Rosenworcel‘s almost nine months is pushing the outside of the envelope in terms of precedent for acting chair tenures.

President Biden has yet to nominate anyone to fill a vacant seat at the FCC. What’s more, the term of current acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is set to expire when Congress adjourns at the end of the year. It adds up to a possible Republican majority on the commission under a Democratic administration, which could stymie the party’s efforts on a number of policies, including net neutrality standards.

A group of over two dozen U.S. Senators are urging President Biden to designate acting FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel to a permanent position, making her the first woman to hold the office. The chairmanship of the commission has been in limbo since Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021, with Rosenworcel operating in acting capacity.

Few probably would have guessed that the industry would still be waiting around in late July for the Biden Administration to name a permanent FCC chair, but that’s where things stand. New Street Research public policy analyst Blair Levin recently said: “While interim Chair [Jessica] Rosenworcel continues to have significant Senate support, her inability to obtain the nomination after more than six months suggests to us that there is some internal White House opposition. But there is no clear front-runner for replacing her.”

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and Harry Jessell discuss the uncertainty lingering at the FCC, where Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel may be facing contention for the permanent job and a fifth commissioner has yet to be appointed.

The head-scratching inside the Beltway continues as the wait for a fifth Democratic Federal Communications Commission member — and for whoever is to be named the agency’s permanent chair — continues. Initial delays were thought to involve a decision between acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel and current commissioner Geoffrey Starks. But the name of broadband backer and one-time Public Knowledge head Gigi Sohn has surfaced as a new possible alternative — and one for whom the buzz had been growing

There’s a welcome place for reasonable regulation of political ads, but the current rules are so cumbersome and fraught with traps that even the most minor mistakes invite ready fines and embarrassment. Hopefully, acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s forthcoming changes will address that, but there’s reason for skepticism.

Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel is going to propose some changes to the agency’s political programming rules, she signaled in a blog post Wednesday (July 14). She did not say what the changes will be, but she will need Republican buy-in. She likely has it because she has scheduled a vote on the item for the August meeting and would be unlikely to schedule a vote in a 2-2 commission on something that could not pass.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel would not comment on the degree to which the president’s failure to name a third Democratic commissioner has prevented it from taking action on some big issues — like restoring network neutrality rules — but she suggested the agency has been hard at work on other things and was still supportive of making net neutrality rules the law of the land, however that is achieved.

A number of unions have called on President Biden to name acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel to the permanent position, saying the commission is understaffed and has a lot of work to do that needs a full commission and a full-time chair. That came in a letter to the president citing her accomplishments and suggesting that there should be no further delay in naming a chair — and a third Democratic commissioner — given the big issues on the FCC’s plate.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants broadcasters to promote their over-the-top (broadband) competition, but in a good cause. In an OTT video speech to the National Association of Broadcasters virtual State Leadership Conference this week, Rosenworcel praised broadcasters as vital first informers, including providing key help for small businesses, encouraging vaccinations, and other pandemic-related help, then hit them up for a public interest favor.

Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel told a troubled senator that the FCC does not have the authority to get involved in the carriage dispute between a broadcaster and streaming service, in this case Disney’s Hulu Plus Live TV streaming service and Sinclair, over access to the latter’s regional sports networks. That came in a letter responding to Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who asked the FCC to help facilitate a resolution of the dispute “promptly and impartially.”

Acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel didn’t make any big news at her first post-meeting press conference Wednesday, but she did confirm that she is still a fan of net neutrality rules and no fan of the Trump Administration petition to the FCC to regulate social media using Sec. 230.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has assembled her team after getting the nod for the interim (at least) post last week. She had been widely expected to get the acting chair post so there was plenty of time to ponder the acting staff she has lined up.

President Biden on Thursday appointed Rebecca Kelly Slaughter acting chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission and Jessica Rosenworcel as acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission. The two appointments reflect the tectonic political shift underway in Washington as Democrats, newly in charge of the White House and Congress, prepare to roll back a slew of deregulatory actions implemented under President Donald Trump.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is tapped by President Biden to lead the agency.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who is widely expected to be named acting FCC chair next week — and perhaps more than acting — used a portion of her statement on the FCC’s first meeting of the new year and last meeting for chairman Ajit Pai to talk a little about the recent violence at the Capitol from the vantage of someone who frequented its halls as a top staffer.

The FCC will soon shift to Democratic control, and speculation has already begun about who will assume the chairmanship under the Biden administration. Jessica Rosenworcel, the senior Democrat on the commission, is widely considered to be one of the leading candidates to succeed Ajit Pai in the powerful regulatory post. She has been vetted twice and would likely have a smooth path to confirmation, which would be a key consideration assuming the Senate remains in Republican hands.

She can’t talk about taking the position. But right now, she’s very focused on Trump’s Section 230 executive order and the state of the U.S. digital divide.

As a member of the minority on the current FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel is limited in the ways she can fight back. Still, she says she thinks it’s important to speak out constantly about where she thinks the agency is falling short.