Four New Members Join Senate Commerce Committee

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has announced the Republican membership of the committee in the new Congress (the 115th), which started Tuesday.

They are, in order of seniority: Sens. Thune, Roger Wicker (Miss.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Dean Heller (Nev.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.V.), Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Todd Young (Ind.).

New to the committee are Sens. Young, Inhofe, Lee and Capito. Exiting are Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Steve Daines (Mont.). Rubio, who was instrumental in pushing for bills freeing up more unlicensed spectrum, is moving to the appropriations committee.

Subcommittee members have not yet been named.

John Eggerton
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.