Senate Slates Nomination Hearing for Clyburn, Baker

The Senate Commerce Committee has slated a July 15 nomination hearing for Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Attwell Baker for the last two spots on the FCC.

Baker is a former Bush administration official—the acting head of NTIA who was widely praised for her stewardship despite the problems with funding for DTV-to-analog converter boxes. Clyburn is a South Carolina public service commissioner and daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.). She is the chair of the Washington Action Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

Along with Baker, Clyburn's nomination must be vetted in both the Senate Commerce Committee and then get full Senate confirmation before they can be installed.

They would join Democrats Julius Genachowski (Chairman) and Michael Copps and Republican Robert McDowell to round out the commission, which is beginning a Herculean agenda of data collection and decisionmaking, with a focus on broadband rollout.

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.