Genachowski Will Follow McDowell Out at the FCC

March 21st, 2013 by · 4 Comments

Seems like just four years ago that Julius Genachowski was getting started as FCC chairman. Oh wait it really *was* four years ago, but apparently that was long enough. Various articles are out there now expecting him to follow the Republican commissioner Robert McDowell and step down today.  I’m sure he’ll pop up somewhere else soon enough, with much better pay of course.

genachowskiThat order of things will leave the Democrats with a 2-1 majority rather than the 3-2 majority they have held since Obama took over in 2009, at least until two replacements get nominated and confirmed.  In other words, well choreographed to not upset any apple carts.

Genachowski’s term as FCC chairman has been fairly exciting at least relative to how exciting regulatory stuff generally is, with seemingly endless Net Neutrality and spectrum battles and that whole AT&T/T-Mobile kerfuffle. And some actual progress on USF and intercarrier compensation did get made along the way.  While some saw him as the people’s champion going in, it seemed to me that he didn’t really satisfy either side – which for a regulator is not necessarily a bad thing.

But the one thing I asked Julius to get done, he did take a reasonable stab at: bring the FCC’s website into the 21st century. FCC.gov is not perfect, but at least it’s not quite as embarrassing as it once was. Not that it makes it any easier to actually read those filings without falling asleep, but I forgot to ask for that one.

I wonder who gets to sit on the hot seat for Obama’s second term. My money’s on Susan Crawford, who would no doubt prompt a significant confirmation fight since she’d be a bit more political than the usual technocrat perhaps.  But from a bloggers’ perspective, all the better…

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Categories: Government Regulations

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