At the Senate Commerce Committee’s confirmation hearings for Federal Communications Commission nominees Wednesday, Republican nominee Ajit Pai — previously employed by at Jenner & Block, the law firm representing clients in the AT&T/T-Mobile deal — told Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that he “would not feel any prejudice” towards a client of his former firm.
In response to a question from the senator over whether Pai would have possible conflicts of interest going forward, and whether he would recuse himself from the proceedings if he did, Pai told Hutschison, “I do not believe that my short period of employment at Jenner & Block would preclude me from being an effective commissioner, or from robustly participating in commission proceedings.”
“My name has not appeared on any comments or pleadings before — that were submitted to the FCC, and the firm in appropriate cases has instituted a screen, to preclude me from discussing or otherwise handling or knowing about particular matters,” said Pai.
The question came following a heated week between the FCC and AT&T. Last week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, throwing the weight of the agency against the deal, called for court proceeding that promised to sink the deal. The telecommunications companies announced their temporary withdrawal a day after Genachowski’s announcement in order to focus first on winning DOJ approval. Advocacy groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project accused the companies of “gamesmanship,” and called for the commission to reject the companies’ request.
The day the FCC announced it would approve AT&T and T-Mobile’s request to withdraw their merger applications, the agency also made public the staff report on its findings about the merger. Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt asked the nominees, “Does the commission act through its actions or through the staff?”
Rosenworcel said that she thought Genachowski was in his authority to make the study public, but acknowledged the move was “probably unprecedented.”
Oregon Republican Rep. Greg Walden — chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — recently introduced legislation to rein in the FCC, targeting the agency’s lengthy review process as one of the reasons needed for its reform.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley has promised to place a hold on the confirmation of the nominees until the FCC releases its findings on LightSquared. The company — which has plans to build out a wireless broadband service — was the subject of much controversy when tests revealed that its network interfered with Global Positioning System devices.
The Obama nominees, Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai, were also confronted with questions on how the FCC could help address problems of providing broadband Internet to rural Americans, whether Internet service providers should be regulated as phone companies or information services, what they would do should Congress pass legislation to aide first responders by reallocating electromagnetic spectrum for public safety and building an interoperable network.
At present, there are only four commissioners — three Democrats and one Republican. Former GOP FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker left the commission after accepting a position beginning in June as “vice president of governmental affairs for NBC Universal,” following the approval of the NBC–Comcast merger.
Pai, if confirmed, will fill Baker’s seat; Rosenworcel, if confirmed, is expected to fill liberal FCC Commissioner Michael Copps’ seat upon his retirement at the end of the year.