Senate GOP Hoping to Confirm FCC Nominee Starks, Carr's Second Term This Week
Senate GOP leaders are aiming to confirm FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr to a second full term this week via unanimous consent, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday. The committee advanced Starks' nomination on a voice vote. Senate confirmation of Starks this week is seen possible, in line with expectations Thune was aiming to fast-track the nominee (see 1806200055). Starks would succeed former Mignon Clyburn, who left the commission earlier this month (see 1806070041). Starks would have a term ending in 2022, and Carr's additional five-year term would end in 2023.
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“If we can get unanimous consent, we'll get them over” to the FCC “as soon as we can,” Thune told reporters. “If we're not done with it by the end of this week, we'll do it during the July work period” with an aim to confirm both by the start of the one-week August recess. “That [Starks] has [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y.] support will be helpful, hopefully, in getting the pairing” with Carr through quickly, Thune said. Schumer recommended the Enforcement Bureau assistant chief despite a push by Senate Commerce ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for committee chief Democratic telecom counsel John Branscome (see 1802070047 and 1803090040).
“If the Democrats don't object, I think we can clear it,” Thune said. “I don't think we'll have anybody on” the Republican side objecting to bringing them up for confirmation this week. Carr and Starks might get held up only if their nominations get “caught up in other issues,” Thune said. “Sometimes … there might be a member who has something totally unrelated but uses [a nomination vote] as a hostage, but I don't see that happening.” The Senate failed to confirm Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to a second term in 2016 amid wrangling over reconfirmation of now-Chairman Ajit Pai and other issues (see 1612080056). Trump renominated Rosenworcel the next year. The Senate confirmed her and Carr to an abbreviated term ending this year (see 1708030060).
Nelson appeared to support quick confirmation of Starks, saying the Senate needs to “move quickly” on the nominee “so that he can begin partnering” with Rosenworcel “to fight against the dismantling of the FCC's core principles.” Spokesmen for Nelson and Schumer didn't comment. Senate Democrats insisted on not voting to confirm Carr to consecutive terms last year to ensure there was a GOP FCC nominee to be paired with a Democratic successor to Clyburn (see 1707260014 and 1707260052).
Confirmation of the two FCC nominees this week is entirely “feasible to the extent the Senate can move fast on anything,” a communications sector lobbyist told us. “It's a perfect situation for that to happen, because both parties would get exactly what they want.” There has been no chatter within industry circles of anyone “actively raising objections about Starks,” but “anything can happen in the Senate,” a telecom lobbyist said.
Starks emphasized his interest in telemedicine, USF programs and improving rural connectivity in responses to Senate Commerce members' post-confirmation hearing questions. Improving telehealth will be “one of my top priorities,” Starks told Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. In rural states “the ability to use telehealth is particularly efficient in providing more care to more people. If confirmed, I hope we can work together to identify other ways the FCC can support these efforts.” The USF E-rate program's “importance is only growing as connected learning becomes the norm in American classrooms,” Starks said. “We need to find ways for the program to function as efficiently and effectively as possible.” Ensuring the U.S. is the leader in 5G is important to improving connectivity and “will require us to think hard about our approach to wireless infrastructure in dialogue with industry, state and local leaders, tribes, and environmental and consumer groups,” Starks told Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. “We must also put sufficient spectrum on the market.”
Senate Commerce also advanced other nominees and the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act (S-645). The nominees included Karen Dunn Kelley for deputy secretary of commerce, Heidi King for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator and Peter Feldman to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Senate Commerce voted 14-13 to advance King and Feldman's nomination to a seven-year term that would begin in 2019. The panel advanced Feldman's nomination to an initial abbreviated term on a voice vote. S-645 and House companion HR-5093 would compel a Bureau of Economic Analysis assessment on the effects of broadband deployment and adoption (see 1802260042).