Shutdown Adds New Wrinkle to Wheeler-O'Rielly Confirmation Timing
The partial federal government shutdown may not mean that the Senate won’t act on the nominations of Tom Wheeler as chairman of the FCC and Michael O'Rielly for its open Republican seat, said industry lobbyists in interviews Tuesday. After all, they said that senators will continue to work and draw a salary with few hearings to attend because many hearings were canceled because some government witnesses can’t attend. The level of enmity among senators appears lower than that between Democrats and Republicans in the House.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
"I don’t know that it particularly is good or bad or indifferent for getting the full complement at the FCC,” said a longtime carrier lobbyist and former Senate staffer of Congress’s inability to reach a new budget deal before FY 2014 began Tuesday. The senators are in Washington and most of the hearings scheduled for this week have been canceled because they can’t get government witnesses to testify, the lobbyist said. “They may have some extra time on their hands and with extra time on their hands they could vote O'Rielly and Wheeler out.” The official said the Senate Commerce Committee could approve sending O'Rielly to the floor through a rolling count in the Senate cloakroom.
O'Rielly is slated to receive a Senate Commerce Committee vote Thursday at an 11 a.m. executive session in 253 Russell, which was set last week before the shutdown. That session is also to consider the nomination of Terrell McSweeny, a Democrat, to the FTC. Asked on Tuesday about the session, the committee press secretary could provide only a limited response: “I am out of the office because of the government shutdown,” he said in an automated email response that noted there is an inability to reply “until the government resumes operation and I return to the office.” He also included the phone number of the majority staff’s phone number, calls to which went unreturned.
A spokeswoman for Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., referred us to that committee’s press secretary. A spokesman for Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told us in an email that his “honest to goodness answer is I have no idea” whether the session is happening. The webpage for that session (http://1.usa.gov/GzKeWZ) didn’t note any postponement, as have other sessions, as of Tuesday afternoon. The offices of various other Commerce Committee members were unable to comment.
"No one really knows how the shutdown will affect the vote on the two nominees,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. “If an agreement is reached on the shutdown soon, I don’t see why that necessarily would unduly slow consideration of the nominees. After all, if the government is going to be open, the agencies might as well be operating with a full leadership contingent on board."
"Only Senate confirmation is required, and Senate Democrats and Republicans do not seem as polarized” as members in the House, said a former FCC legal adviser now representing carriers and other clients. A senator could still put a hold on either nomination, the lawyer said, “but I do not perceive a desire among other Senate Republicans to hold things up in that way, especially since both parties get nominees through.”
A vote remains possible, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. “Many Republicans privately say they hate this standoff and that it is being driven ... primarily by the hardcore conservatives in the House and a handful of conservative Senators,” he said. “I don’t think that generates so much ill-will that it precludes getting a vote through on non-controversial nominees. Traditionally Washington is all about fighting tooth and nail on one issue while getting stuff done on other issues where there is agreement. A voice vote on nominations like this is exactly the kind of thing that generally happens when everyone is standing around waiting for the negotiating teams to come back with a final package to vote at 2 a.m.” on a budget accord, Feld said.
Other industry sources were less optimistic about a quick vote on the two nominees. “Like many things related to the shut down, it seems to be a lose-lose-lose proposition,” said a veteran of multiple FCCs. “Tempers will be raw and bipartisanship may not be in fashion for a while,” said public interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman. “But anyone who predicts what is going to happen is just guessing."
"I can only imagine that the shutdown will push every other priority further down the list, even if there’s no concrete impediment to conducting some legislative business between the harangues,” said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood by email. “Without reliable or consistent access to their staffs, Senators also may be unwilling or unable to carry out obligations, even if the Senators themselves are in the building."
"Given the rancor at the close of the summer session, I started to think the votes wouldn’t happen until possibly January 2014,” said a former FCC spectrum official. “Of course, it’s only gotten worse since then. No one is in a giving mood.” (hbuskirk@warren-news.com),