[ETS/PARC List] ARLB010 Senate Approves Two New FCC Commissioners, Commission to Be at Full Strength

[drew Moore]

Subject: ARLB010 Senate Approves Two New FCC Commissioners, Commission to Be
at Full Strength

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB010
ARLB010 Senate Approves Two New FCC Commissioners, Commission to Be at Full
Strength

ZCZC AG10
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 10  ARLB010
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  May 10, 2012
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB010
ARLB010 Senate Approves Two New FCC Commissioners, Commission to Be at Full
Strength

Six months after President Barack Obama nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and
Ajit Varadaraj Pai to the Federal Communications Commission, the Senate
confirmed their appointments on Monday, May 7. Rosenworcel, a Democrat,
fills the seat vacated by Michael Copps who retired from the Commission
earlier this year; her term runs through June 30, 2015. Pai, a Republican,
replaces Meredith Attwell Baker, who left the FCC in June 2011; his term
runs through June 30, 2016. Once Rosenworcel and Pai are sworn in, the FCC
will be at its full complement of five Commissioners.

According to various reports, the two will be sworn in by the end of this
week. Their nominations had been held up since December in an unrelated
dispute between the FCC and Senator Chuck Grassley
(R-Iowa) over agency approval of LightSquared's wireless application. When
Grassley received the sought-after documents two weeks ago, he lifted a hold
on the nominations.

The FCC has been down two commissioners since Baker and Copps left the
Commission, leaving the agency with only three commissioners:
two Democrats and one Republican. Only three sitting Commissioners may be
members of the same political party. At present, Chairman Julius Genachowski
and Mignon Clyburn are Democrats while Robert McDowell is the lone
Republican on the Commission.

"I want to congratulate Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel on their Senate
confirmation and welcome them to the Commission," said FCC Chairman
Genachowski in a written statement. "They bring deep knowledge of our sector
and proven track records of accomplishment.
President Obama made an outstanding choice in their nominations, and I look
forward to working with them."

Rosenworcel is the Senior Communications Counsel for the United States
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, working for
Senator Jay Rockefeller IV since 2009, and previously for Senator Daniel K.
Inouye from 2007-2008. Before joining the Committee, she worked at the FCC
from 1999-2007, serving as Legal Advisor, and then Senior Legal Advisor to
Commissioner Copps (2003-2007), Legal Counsel to the Bureau Chief of the
Wireline Competition Bureau (2002-2003) and as an Attorney-Advisor in the
Policy Division of the Common Carrier Bureau (1999-2002). From 1997-1999,
Rosenworcel was a communications associate at Drinker Biddle and Reath. She
received a BA from Wesleyan University and a JD from New York University
School of Law

Pai is a partner in the Litigation Department of Jenner & Block LLP.
Immediately prior to joining Jenner & Block, he worked in the Office of the
General Counsel at the FCC where he served as Deputy General Counsel,
Associate General Counsel and Special Advisor to the General Counsel.
Previously, Pai served as Chief Counsel to the US Senate Judiciary
Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property
Rights, and as Senior Counsel at the Office of Legal Policy at the US
Department of Justice. Pai also served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the US
Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and
the Courts, and as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications. He
began his career as a law clerk to Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the US
District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and then as an Honors
Program trial attorney in the Telecommunications Task Force at the US
Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Pai holds a BA from Harvard
University and a JD from the University of Chicago.
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