Baker Departure June 3 Leaves McDowell as Only FCC Republican
Meredith Baker will leave the FCC with a single GOP member starting June 3, her last day on the job, she confirmed Wednesday afternoon. That may induce Senate Republicans to quickly seek a replacement and also back a Democratic nominee whose appointment would be on the same track as Baker’s successor, industry officials said. The FCC will be split 3-1 when Baker leaves, making Robert McDowell the only Republican commissioner. A 2-1 split would occur if Commissioner Michael Copps’ replacement doesn’t get Senate approval by the end of this session of Congress, when he must leave the commission. His term expired June 30, 2010, but the law allows him to serve until the end of the subsequent session of Congress.
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Baker is going to work as a senior vice president at Comcast, helping to run the lobbying operations of NBCUniversal. The cable operator got approval from Baker and three of the four other FCC members -- Copps voted against -- to buy control of NBCUniversal in January (WID Jan 19 p2). Some groups that seek more transparency in government said Baker’s new job poses the appearance of a conflict of interest. Baker’s aides had no comment beyond her announcement that she’s leaving the FCC.
Baker appeared to have started recently speaking with Comcast about the job, industry officials said. Ex-NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, who joined Comcast last month as president of Comcast/NBCUniversal in Washington, played a key role in hiring Baker, they said. The job possibility came open when Bob Okun, who ran NBCUniversal’s lobbying operations in Washington, decided to leave to start his own firm (WID April 18 p8) after he would have worked under other executives in Washington at Comcast, industry officials said. Baker will report to McSlarrow and “work closely with Rick Cotton, NBCUniversal’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, who continues to set strategic policy direction for NBCUniversal,” Comcast said in a news release.
Several names have emerged as likely candidates to replace Baker, most of them hill staffers. Among them are Brian Hendricks, an aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Neil Fried, senior telecom counsel for the House Commerce Committee; and Lee Dunn, telecom counsel for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. It’s unclear whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will have a candidate of his own, Republican sources said.
It may take some time for Senate Republicans, who had been expecting Baker to seek another term, to find a new member of their party to put forward to the White House, a GOP communications industry lobbyist noted. The party may feel galvanized to quickly find a replacement so the FCC has two Republicans, industry officials said. They said that Jessica Rosenworcel, likely to replace Commissioner Copps as the third Democratic FCC member when he leaves, might get a nomination hearing sooner than she would have if Baker remained. Rosenworcel is an aide to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
Joining Comcast makes Baker “a prime example of the revolving door in Washington, where someone comes in, gets their ticket punched in a high-profile job, and goes to the other side,” Policy Director Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center said in an interview. “For most Americans, they just see it as … standard operating procedure in the way Washington works.” By law, Baker will have a two-year period during which she can’t lobby the commission, McGehee noted. Free Press, an opponent of Comcast on many issues, called Baker’s hiring a merger of the company and the FCC. “This is just the latest -- though perhaps most blatant -- example of a so-called public servant cashing in at a company she is supposed to be regulating,” Free Press President Craig Aaron said in a news release.
"I depart most proud of our collective efforts to focus on long-term comprehensive spectrum reform,” which is “the most important step we can take to ensure our nation’s competitiveness in an increasingly interconnected world,” Baker said. “The continued deployment of our broadband infrastructures will meaningfully impact the lives of all Americans” and she said she’s happy to have played a small role “in this success.” Baker was the last person to run NTIA, as interim administrator, under President George W. Bush. She became an FCC commissioner in July 2009.
Baker has a long history in Washington. She joined NTIA in 2004, first as a senior adviser and later as deputy administrator. She has also worked for CTIA and Covad Communications as well as in the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Department under President George H. W. Bush.
The timing of Baker’s departure makes sense, since in June she will have fulfilled her commitment as a commissioner, a veteran Republican lobbyist said. To have been confirmed to another term, she likely would have had to be “paired” with a Democrat, GOP lobbyists said. “After the election is over and say the Republicans take the Senate, it’s very difficult to exit at that point in time and still have credibility,” one said. “You were part of a deal that put a Democrat in with a Republican. … Do you go through what could be a three- or six-month hearing process and then walk out? Or do you take what you're being offered right now?”
Baker’s term ends June 30, and she could have stayed at the agency without a reappointment until the next session of Congress adjourned late in 2012 or January 2013. McConnell had sent her name to the White House for reappointment, and Hutchison had backed Baker for a second term after championing her appointment in 2009. A Hutchison spokeswoman said she'd been told that Baker wouldn’t seek reappointment.