 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
The FCC After Michael Powell
by Drew Clark
The resignation of FCC Chairman Michael Powell on Friday likely will force President Bush to devote careful attention to telecommunications and technology policy, an area that some experts believe he neglected for most of his first term.
Powell became a lightning rod for his generally deregulatory approach to telecommunications. Although his legacy at the FCC will continue to be debated, attention is expected to turn this week to who will succeed him after his March departure. The pace of technological convergence and the fact that Congress is likely to rewrite the nation's telecom laws puts the FCC chairman in an even more powerful position over the domestic economic agenda.
Three major candidates appear to have a shot at becoming chairman: Republican FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin, former Texas telecom adviser Becky Armandariz Klein and Michael Gallagher, head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy is expected to announce her resignation this week as well, potentially making room for more than one newcomer at the agency.
The Bush administration "has not focused as much as it needs to" on telecom, said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, a conservative with close ties to the White House. "It is so important, and it makes so much sense, that I believe there will be greater focus on it" because the prospect of one or two FCC appointments makes it one of "those things that you can control."
Kevin Martin: Sitting Tight at the FCC?
Sources inside and outside the administration say that each candidate is a Bush loyalist with a strong claim on the chairman's job. Other names also have been floated, including Janice Obuchowski, a telecom consultant who held Gallagher's job in the first administration of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and who was U.S. ambassador to the World Radiocommunications Conference in 2003. Earl Comstock, a telecom adviser to incoming Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is another candidate.
Some observers believe Martin has the advantage by virtue of his current job. Federal law calls for the president to pick one of the five commissioners as chairman, which would allow Martin to assume the top job without Senate confirmation.
Martin also has deep ties to the White House. He was deputy general counsel in Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and was on the legal team that prevailed in the Florida recount. He then went to National Economic Council before being named to the FCC in April 2001.
But Martin has bickered constantly with Powell. Some conservatives -- including those on The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which broke the news of Powell's departure -- believe the fight between the two men over telecom rules delayed the sector's recovery by more than a year.
That split came to a head in February 2003. Martin agreed with Powell and the technology sector that fiber-optic, high-speed Internet access should be deregulated. But he joined with the commission's two Democrats to support the "states rights" view that state public-utilities commissions could force the dominant Bell companies to share their wires with competitors at below-market rates. Siding with the Bells, Powell dissented.
Powell's view was vindicated by the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Bush administration finally took his side in June 2004. Since Bush expressed that view, Martin has been even more pro-Bell than Powell.
"Some Bell companies now view him as the most attractive of all the potential candidates for the job," Medley Advisors analyst Jessica Zufolo wrote Friday. Through a spokesman, Martin declined comment on whether he is seeking the chairmanship.
Becky Armandariz Klein: The Political Choice?
One of the key issues before the new chairman is the interplay between federal and state regulation of telephone service and the continuing ability of states to set intrastate connection rates. Klein also has taken the states' side.
After advising then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush from 1999 to 2001, she was appointed to the Texas Public Utilities Commission in June 2001. She served as chairwoman from June 2002 to January 2004 and then ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year.
Klein, who is a major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and served in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, was appointed by the National Association of Regional Utility Commissioners (NARUC) to head its task force on implementing the FCC's February 2003 decision. At the time, Klein cautioned the FCC "against usurping the states' role or adopting any approach that would [lessen] the substantial, important role that the states have played since the enactment of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996."
The NARUC task force acted as a clearinghouse to unify the states in the face of the FCC's decision, now overturned, to delegate them power. The 1996 act had required Bells to share their switches and wires when they enjoy monopoly status. The FCC's December 2004 telecom rules say switches are not a monopoly and set national rules for when wires must be shared.
"She was very interested in empirical data about whether competitive forces have taken hold," NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said of Klein. "If you were president and you were looking for someone to appoint to a federal agency like the FCC, it would be harder to come up with someone better than Becky Klein," either as a member or as a chairwoman.
In her unsuccessful race against Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, Klein lost 68 percent to 31 percent but garnered extensive campaign contributions from the telecom sector, including $17,800 from SBC Communications, according to the Web site opensecrets.org.
Klein did not return an e-mail seeking comment on the FCC job.
Michael Gallagher: The Voice of the Administration?
Powell was praised Friday by the White House for "helping to advance the president's goal" of universal and affordable broadband by 2007. If broadband policy formed the basis for selecting the next FCC chairman, it might seem logical for Bush to turn to Gallagher, the official who spoke for the administration when broadband became an issue during the 2004 election season.
After Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry released an economic plan citing the benefits of broadband March 26, Bush said the "country needs a national goal for broadband technology." Bush unveiled his goal in April, and Gallagher issued press releases about how the Commerce Department was facilitating broadband over power lines and streamlining federal rights-of-way. When Bush visited Commerce in June, he touted NTIA's work as examples of how his administration is encouraging broadband.
Gallagher is regarded as a fan of Powell, so his fate may hinge on the perception of that legacy at the White House. Gallagher sided with Powell over Martin in the phone dispute, sources said.
In a humorous skit during an annual dinner for the FCC chairman in December, Gallagher asked Powell, "If someone was an aspiring chairman, what sort of advice would you give that person?"
"Gallagher is campaigning for it, has a lot of energy and is fairly well liked within the industry," said Jim Lucier, an equity analyst at Prudential Securities who follows technology policy. "He has thought long and hard about what a future telecom agenda would look like."
Gallagher would not comment on the FCC job, his spokesman said.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
