WASHINGTON-A new day appears to be dawning for FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.
This new day will have Powell greeting four new colleagues by the end of the year, reforming an agency that some on Capitol Hill have said cannot be fixed and should be eliminated, and getting more money for the Federal Communications Commission-money that could help him hire much-needed engineers.
And then there was one …
FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani told RCR Wireless News on Thursday that she plans to leave the agency by the end of the year to seek political office in New Mexico.
Tristani said she is focusing on challenging GOP Sen. Pete Domenici, but also is considering the governor’s race and a challenge against Rep. Heather Wilson. Tristani’s grandfather was a senator from New Mexico.
Domenici would be a tough target. He is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is in his fifth term and was last elected in 1996 with 64 percent of the vote.
On the wireless front, Domenici was a strong advocate of the FCC’s efforts in reclaiming the spectrum of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.
Tristani has not set a date for her departure so she said she has not contacted the White House nor has White House staff contacted her. In the meantime, she plans to continue working, she said.
“While I am planning on leaving by the end of the year, I am still concentrated on a host of issues, including in the wireless area spectrum management, continued enhanced 911 Phase II deployment and the privacy issues [surrounding] location-based technologies,” said Tristani.
The uncertainty as to when Tristani will leave makes it difficult to know exactly when a “new” FCC will be in place.
Powell told the United States Telecom Association’s National Issues Conference last week that it would be nice if it were “yesterday. … There seems to be a concerted effort to work on it [at the White House but] personally I would be surprised if it was sometime before summer.”
The current plan seems to be for the White House to send up to the Senate the names of two Republicans-to fill the seats left open by the resignation of former FCC Chairman William E. Kennard and the departing Harold Furchtgott-Roth-and one Democrat for the seat of FCC Commissioner Susan Ness who also has privately said she will not seek reappointment for her recess term, which expires this fall. Tristani’s seat then would be filled separately.
Such a scenario brings up an interesting situation because there seems to be more momentum behind the Democratic nominations than the Republican ones, even though it is widely believed the names will be sent to the Senate in a package to make confirmation easier.
Michael Copps, a former aide to Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-.S.C.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, seems to have the inside track on the Democratic slot.
The White House traditionally listens to the preferences of key senators, but Hollings was shut out during the entire Clinton administration and truly believes it is his turn to get his man on the commission.
Copps has a Ph.D. in U.S. history and was an official in the Clinton Department of Commerce.
If Tristani tells the White House of her intentions before the package is sent to Capitol Hill, two other names have surfaced for her seat. Andrew Levin, chief telecom aide to Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Commerce Committee and Bob Rowe, a member of the Montana Public Service Commission. Rowe is a recent past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
Levin has the support of not only Dingell, but also Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Tauzin told Bloomberg news in February that he supports Levin.
“He has a strong pro-competitive open marketplace philosophy and I know he agrees with me and John Dingell that it’s time for FCC reform. I see a friend and ally there so I’m a strong advocate for him,” said Tauzin.
Rowe has the strong backing of Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee. Burns confirmed to reporters last week that he is pushing Rowe’s name for the Democratic seat.
While Burns and Tauzin are both publicly supporting Democrats, there does not seem to be any front-leading Republicans.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has not indicated a preference, said spokeswoman Pia Pialorsi.
There seems to be strong preference at the White House that one of the Republicans be a woman. Three leading candidates are former NextWave executive Janice Obuchowski, Becky Armendariz and Kathleen Abernathy.
In addition to her failed NextWave experience, Obuchowski was once a legal adviser to former FCC Chairman Mark Fowler. She is now president of Freedom Technologies, a telecommunications consulting firm. Freedom represented Free Space Technologies in its failed bid to have the FCC allow companies using cellular-like architectures access to the guard-band spectrum in the 700 MHz band.
Armendariz is a former attorney for the Texas Public Utility Commission and was a communications policy adviser to President George W. Bush while he was governor of Texas. She is now a federal relations consultant with KPMG Consulting.
Abernathy is vice president of public policy for Broadband Office Communications, a competitive local exchange carrier for office buildings. Abernathy has worked for U S West Inc. and was a legal adviser to former FCC Commissioner Jim Quello.
Another name making the rounds is Earl Comstock. Comstock is a former telecommunications aide to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, now in private law practice.
The White House refused to say when the package will be named or sent to the Senate or to speculate on front-runners.
Reform may not be all it was cracked up to be
Powell’s attempts to reform the FCC may run head long into the Communications Act, he told USTA, noting that the law is set up in technological buckets making it almost necessary for there to be bureaus arranged by technology rather than service or function.
“The statute is still written in technology buckets [and] I only want to do something that is meaningful,” said Powell.
This may not sit well with Dingell, who told USTA that FCC reform was a top priority for the House Commerce Committee.
“The FCC continues to apply regulation designed for the last generation. … Too often, the FCC has been hamstrung by a bad regulatory attitude. … Not only does the FCC have an outdated structure [and is inefficient, but the] outcomes of the proceedings are unfair,” said Dingell.
Whatever the structure of the agency, the FCC needs to do as Powell said is his main goal, to make decisions in Internet time. The current time it takes to get decisions out of the agency is “pretty unacceptable,” said Burns.
In the meantime, Powell seems to be changing the internal workings of the commission. “There are weekly senior staff meetings that used to be closed that are now open to the other commissioners’ offices. This reflects an openness of management style that is refreshing,” said Furchtgott-Roth.
But a former congressman, now senior vice president for public policy and external affairs for Verizon Communications, Thomas J. Tauke, warned that FCC reform may not be the magic bullet that many on Capitol Hill see it to be.
Indeed, Powell will have to wait for his new colleagues to arrive-whoever they are-before some high-profile items like the repeal of the spectrum cap can emerge. The current members appear to be split 2-2.
Show me the money
While Powell tries to reform the agency and maintain the spirit of the Communication
s Act, he may get something that his predecessors have lacked in recent years: more money.
Both Burns and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of th
e House telecom subcommittee, said the agency needs more money to hire more engineers so it can be more responsive.
“I went straight to Sen. [Judd] Gregg, chairman of the Senate commerce, justice, state appropriations subcommittee, and I told him] `We have just got to update and bring the FCC into the year 2000,” said Burns.
