WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is reviewing potential candidates to succeed National
Telecommunications and Information Administration head Larry Irving, who is expected to leave his post by year’s
end.
One prospect, Greg Rohde, an aide to Senate Commerce Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), is
endorsed by 15 Senate lawmakers, including Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Senate Commerce Committee
Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Commerce communications
subcommittee, and Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking minority member of the Commerce panel.
The lawmakers
represent a cross section of the Commerce Committee, which has a significant number of members with rural
constituencies.
“This is a very critical position, and it is important that the administration appoint someone
with strong bipartisan support who can help ensure a cooperative working relationship between the administration and
the Congress on telecommunications issues,” the lawmakers said in letter to President Clinton.
NTIA advises
the president on telecom policy and manages federal government spectrum.
Rohde spoke on a panel at the annual
conference of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in New Orleans last month.
Irving, who
declined to comment on his plans, bristled at initial reports suggesting he might be stepping down soon. Irving has
served longer than any other NTIA chief, and arguably has had more influence on national telecom policy than any of
his predecessors.
Other names mentioned as possible candidates are Mark McCarthy, a telecom lobbyist at The
Wexler Group, and Julia Johnson, a commissioner on the Florida Public Service Commission.
Johnson, whose
name surfaced in recent years when vacancies arose on the Federal Communications Commission, is co-chair of the
communications panel for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. She also is a member of the
Federal Joint Board on universal service.
