The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a vote next week on the nomination of Anna Gomez (left) for the open seat on the FCC, as well as the renominations of Democrat Geoffrey Starks (center) and Republican Brendan Carr (right) for their respective seats. The nomination markup will be July 12 at 10 a.m. If all goes well, the committee will favorably report the nominations to the full Senate for a vote, something that never happened for Gomez’s predecessor, Gigi Sohn, whose nomination was withdrawn after it was killed by Republicans, industry players and at least one Democrat who failed to support her.
The Senate Commerce Committee today once again vetted public interest lawyer Gigi Sohn for the long-vacant third Democratic seat on the five-member FCC, and Republicans had their knives out. With a Senate majority, though, the Democrats hold the fate of Sohn in their own hands.
A confirmation vote scheduled in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday for Gigi Sohn’s nomination as FCC commissioner was pulled Tuesday. In addition to the confirmation vote being pulled, a Senate aide also confirmed that a request from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for an additional hearing into allegations of conflicts of interest against Sohn has been granted.
With the asterisked caveat that the items are “subject to change,” a vote on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the open Democratic seat on the FCC has been set. The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled an executive session for Wednesday, Feb. 2, and Sohn is among 14 nominations slotted to get a vote. Among the other nominees are Alvaro Bedoya for the open Democratic seat on the Federal Trade Commission and four members of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kathy Im, Thomas Rothman, Elizabeth Sembler and Laura Ross.
The Senate Commerce Committee has voted to approve the nomination of open internet advocate Alan Davidson, a longtime executive with Mozilla and Google before that, to head the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. Three Republicans voted against the nomination: John Thune (S.D.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Tim Scott (S.C.).
The tone is generally cordial as the Democratic nominee sticks by her advocacy.
Exclusives
Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee today for a new, five-year term. Now, only full-Senate confirmation is left before she becomes the regulator‘s first non-acting woman chair.
President Joe Biden’s pick for a seat on the FCC, Gigi Sohn, will get a Dec. 1 confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, as will Biden’s nominee for another key telecommunications post, Alan Davidson, nominated to head the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
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‘s Subcommittee on Communications, Media and Broadband on Wednesday (Oct. 6) took up a bill that would force Fox to program WWOR, licensed to Secaucus, N.J., but serving the New York City market, more to committee Democrats‘ liking in terms of local news and other programming aimed at the Garden State. It is possible the bill could be appended to an end-of-year, must-pass funding package.
The Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday voted 14-12 along party lines to advance the nomination of controversial telecom lawyer Nathan Simington to the FCC. If confirmed by the full Senate, President-elect Joe Biden will begin his term with the FCC evenly split between Democrats and Republicans — which could hamper his goal of restoring net neutrality rules.
The SenateCommerce Committee plans to vote Wednesday on the nomination of Nathan Simington for the Republican FCC seat being vacated by Michael O’Rielly at year’s end, according to a group opposed to his confirmation. If Simington is confirmed by the full Senate, still an open question, the FCC will be at 2-2 when chairman Ajit Pai leaves Jan. 20, putting pressure on the Biden Administration to nominate, vet, and confirm a third Democrat so they have a majority.
The Senate Commerce Committee voted last week to authorize subpoenas for (l-r) Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai of Google and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to force them to testify if they didn’t agree to do so voluntarily. Spokespeople for the companies said Monday that the CEOs will cooperate and appear at an Oct. 28 hearing.
The Senate Commerce Committee has lined up the FCC commissioners — that includes Chairman Ajit Pai — for an oversight hearing. The committee said Wednesday the hearing would be June 12 and review ongoing “activities and proceedings.”
The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing on the TV and video marketplace for June 5. The hearing is described as examining “how television programming and the delivery of video content have evolved over the past decade.”
As expected, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has switched places with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and will head the Senate Commerce Committee’s Communications Subcommittee in the new Congress. Wicker is succeeding Thune as chair of the Commerce Committee — Thune has been named minority whip and the rules prevent him from holding the chairmanship and the “whipping” post, as it were.
As expected, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has been tapped to head the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, which has primary oversight of communications issues and the FCC. Wicker succeeds Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who has been named majority whip for the new Congress.
During a hearing on Wednesday, members of the Senate Commerce Committee voted to approve the confirmations of Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Brendan Carr as FCC commissioners. Current Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s reconfirmation to the FCC was also approved by lawmakers. The trio’s confirmations will proceed to a Senate-wide vote
RTDNA is joining the Society of Professional Journalists and a score of other journalism groups, urging the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the state of media in the United States. The groups say an informed public is crucial to democracy and they want to work together to ensure the public has an informed opinion of the press and its role.
Sen. John Thune has slotted the oversight hearing for 10 a.m. on Sept. 15 with all of the commissioners listed as witnesses.
Senate lawmakers are looking for ways to put even more of the government’s wireless spectrum into the hands of the private sector. Under the draft text of a bill now being informally considered by the Senate Commerce Committee, the government could be instructed to find and relinquish an additional 20 megahertz of publicly owned spectrum beyond the 30 MHz President Obama agreed to when he signed a two-year budget deal on Monday. Agencies would be required to auction off the total 50 MHz by 2024.
A Senate bill that would exempt TV stations in current joint sales agreements from being forced to unwind the deals under a new FCC rule, was voted out of the commerce committee 14-10. But the bill, authored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), is not out of the woods yet.
Broadcasters in joint sales agreements may get some relief from an FCC rule passed last year that would force many TV stations to unwind deals that were previously approved by the agency. On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to vote on a bill that would grandfather existing JSAs already in place when the FCC voted along party lines in March 2014 to attribute ownership limitations to any JSA where one station sells more than 15% of the ad time of another station in the same market.
Amid heated allegations that he has allowed his agency to be a puppet for the White House, the head of the FCC has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee next month. Tom Wheeler, who initially declined to appear before the panel this week, will testify on the morning of March 17, committee spokeswoman M.J. Henshaw said.
The fun thing about an oversight hearing on the FCC is that there is always something for every constituent’s pet issue, even if it’s only for three minutes. Tuesday’s Senate Commerce committee hearing was no exception, dredging up the problem of blackouts caused when cable systems and TV stations can’t agree on carriage fees. Soon after the hearing concluded late Tuesday, advocates for retrans consent reform shoved a press release out the door applauding an exchange between Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who wanted something done about blackouts, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
A Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week will assess impact of the Cable Act, the law often blamed for blackouts on cable and satellite TV.
Barry Diller, a major investor in the new Aereo online video service, tells a Senate panel that the start-up’s technology “simply allows a consumer to get what was the quid pro quo for a broadcaster receiving a free license.’’
FCC nominees Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai received broad bipartisan support — but some tough questions — from Senate Commerce Committee members during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) brushed aside a threat by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), renewed yesterday, to block the nominees if they reach the floor.
