Obama Taps Gregg for Commerce Secretary

President Barack Obama has tapped Republican Senator Judd Gregg to be Secretary of Commerce, according to Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, who said he supports the nomination.

In that post, Gregg will be in charge of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House's chief telecom policy adviser. NTIA is currently overseeing the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon program, whose waiting list for those coupons helped prompt the Obama administration to call for moving the DTV transition date.

""Senator Judd Gregg has served this country extremely honorably in the United States Congress. He is a compassionate leader who understands that commerce is the keystone of any of our economic recovery plans," said Rockefeller. The Senate must ultimately confirm Gregg's nomination.

Gregg is the current Senator and former governor of New Hampshire.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.