Rockefeller Schedules Vote On FCC Nominee O'Rielly

Sen. Jay
Rockefeller (D-W. Va.),
chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has scheduled a vote Oct. 3 on
the nomination of Michael O'Rielly to succeed Republican Commissioner Robert
McDowell.

He is
expected to have no trouble securing that
approval, after which he can be paired
with FCC chairman nominee Tom Wheeler for a full Senate vote-Wheeler has
already been approved by the committee.

Also
scheduled for a vote Oct. 3 is
Democratic Federal Trade Commission nominee Terrell McSweeny.

The FCC is currently down from five
members to three, the fewest it can have. The FTC is at four, also down from five.

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.