Clyburn Won't Show Her Cards on Title II Reclassification

Commissioner is also not pressed publicly on increasingly criticized media ownership proposal

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/4/2012 4:40:44 PM

FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn faced a generally friendly Senate Commerce panel Tuesday in her renomination hearing for a full, five-year term.

She declined to say whether she would reclassify Internet access as a Title II service if the court strikes down the FCC's Open Internet order, but did say she would answer questions about the FCC's increasingly criticized, at least from Democratic quarters, media ownership proposal.

She also committed to providing answers offline to acting hearing chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Boxer's and other legislators' request that the FCC postpone its vote on media ownership, though she volunteered that she had gotten a 30-day extension on comments on the media ownership study, which effectively delays that vote at least until the beginning of next year. Boxer said that was excellent, and did not press her on the ownership issue in the public forum of the hearing.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who joined in that request to delay the media ownership vote, warned that the FCC was heading for a resolution of disapproval from Congress if it continued along the lines of its current ownership proposal. "This is not the Rupert Murdoch view of the world," she said. "If we want to have an independent media they should be independent, not consolidated," she said. "So we will be loud and boisterous about what the commission is intending to do." Cantwell sent her own, separate letter to the FCC criticizing the item.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) was ill and did not preside, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) divvying up the duties. Kerry said in teeing up the hearing that Clyburn had done a "superb job" in helping chairman move important policies, including spurring broadband, wired and wireless.

Also quizzed was Federal Trade Commission nominee Joshua Wright. He said he would recuse himself from any law enforcement action involving Google and any other for the requisite 2 years. Wright, a George Mason University professor, was co-author of a paper in 2011, "Google and the Limits of Antitrust: The Case Against the Case Against Google," defending the company.

Wright would not commit to recusing himself beyond that timetable, but Cantwell said she wanted him to give her that answer at a follow-up to the hearing.

Boxer said she appreciated that, but wanted a list of the companies who might have business before the FTC that had supported his work so she could get a sense of what he could rule on.

Wright was also asked to give follow-up answers on his view of FTC do-not-track and notice and choice proposals.

Clyburn's current term expired June 30, 2012, but she could continue serving through the next Congress unless a replacement were nominated and confirmed. She joined the FCC in 2009, filling the unexpired term of Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, who left to head the Rural Utilities Service (RUS).

The White House submitted her renomination back in June, but action was on hold pending the outcome of the election.

Kerry said that Sen. Rockefeller planned to vote on the nominations next week. Both Clyburn and Wright are expected to secure their nominations and renominations, respectively.