Grassley Still Not Ready to Lift Holds on FCC Nominees

Grassley said the documents could be delivered to House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., as early as “Thursday or Friday of this week.” If the FCC is “very sincere I don’t see any reason [the nominees] couldn’t be taken up immediately after we get back,” Grassley said in an interview Monday evening.

"We've got 19,500 pages [and] we've been told we might be getting tranches of that this week and I don’t think we have to wait ’til we get 19,500 pages to release the holds, but we've got to know that whatever the first tranche is is a serious effort to satisfy our request and at that point I think it is possible to move ahead,” Grassley said. If the FCC is “serious now, that will help give us confidence, but I want to make sure there are no shenanigans like there was last time they released documents and they were already in the public domain,” he said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told reporters Tuesday that movement on the FCC nominees is possible. “I called the chief of staff for the FCC yesterday, clearly hot and bothered and I wanted to have all the remaining emails [and a new set of emails] was delivered by 10 a.m. this morning and they were all unredacted,” Rockefeller said. Rockefeller said he “hopes” he has satisfied Grassley’s concerns. “There is just no reason for it now.” Rosenworcel is a Rockefeller aide, while Pai has worked as a lawyer at the FCC and is now in private practice.

"After learning from reporters today that Sen. Rockefeller had described the FCC’s production of more documents, Sen. Grassley’s staff contacted the House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans who requested documents,” Grassley spokeswoman Jill Gerber said late Tuesday. “When the House committee confirmed receipt of a second batch of documents from the FCC, Sen. Grassley’s staff retrieved the documents on disc. It’s unclear whether the documents contain internal, previously unreleased materials related to the FCC’s decision-making on LightSquared. Sen. Grassley’s staff is reviewing the documents now. His staff has been told the latest batch consists of approximately 5,900 FCC documents. So far, of the first 1,174 pages reviewed, 1,171 pages are news clips that are publicly available. In the prior batch of FCC documents received from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, many of the newly ‘unredacted’ documents consisted of phone numbers and other technical details unrelated to agency decision-making.” Grassley has consistently sought “internal documents that would shed light into why the FCC appeared to give expedited initial approval to LightSquared’s wireless project” and hasn’t “moved the ball” on what he has asked for, Gerber said. She said Grassley “simply wants access to FCC documents so he can determine whether the FCC is performing due diligence before approving major projects involving public resources and affecting consumers. By repeatedly denying Sen. Grassley’s request to view FCC documents, the FCC has prolonged this inquiry into its one-year duration and raised questions about its commitment to transparency and congressional oversight.”

Grassley is under pressure from elsewhere in the Senate to release his hold as the documents start to stream out of the FCC. Grassley recently met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to discuss various issues, industry officials said Tuesday. Pai is close to McConnell’s Deputy Chief of Staff Rohit Kumar. Kansas’s two Republican senators -- Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts -- have also been pushing to move Pai’s nomination forward, sources said. Pai worked for former GOP Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback.

Thousands of pages of documents have been released thus far, with more to come, government officials said. Pai and Rosenworcel are obviously anxious for their nominations to be approved, industry officials said. Pai has largely stepped away from his law practice at Jenner & Block since his nomination, while Rosenworcel has had to curtail the meetings she can take as a Senate aide while her nomination remains before the Senate.

"I'm hearing this might begin to move toward a solution, maybe before the Memorial Day recess, that’s what people are pushing for,” said a top communications lawyer who is tracking the nominations. Grassley probably hasn’t gotten all the documents he’s looking for, the lawyer said. “At some point Grassley is going to cave on this one, but maybe he can get an agreement with Rockefeller to continue to push it,” the attorney added. “Once he gives in … that’s all he’s going to get.”