Hundt, Wheeler, Gips On Obama Agency-Review Teams

President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition team has named the members of its federal agency review team, which will vet government agencies including the FCC. While it is not clear yet which, if any, will be on the FCC team, there are some familiar names to media policy watchers.

Reed Hundt, former FCC chairman under President Clinton and an Obama campaign surrogate on telecom policy during the campaign, has been named a member of the agency review group, working on international trade and economic agencies.

Don Gips, is one possibility for an FCC-vetting post. He is co-chair of the general agency review process and is onetime chief of the FCC's International bureau, where he helped oversee spectrum policy.

In addition, Tom Wheeler, former president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, will be a member of the review group looking at science, technology, space and arts agencies.

A transition spokesperson said more team members would be named, that the assignments above are not all-inclusive and may be expanded, and could provide no guidance on which, if any, of the above three would be working on reviewing the FCC, saying that would be announced, "sooner, hopefully, than later."

Click here for a list and bios of announced agency co-chairs and team members.

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.