The partial federal government shutdown, in its fourth day Friday, is raising varying levels of anxiety among members of the communications bar. The shutdown’s effects rippled through the Washington area last week, giving most federal workers an unexpected, possibly unpaid, vacation, and raising some fundamental questions for those whose business is dealing with the government. Further adding to problems lawyers face, the FCC unexpectedly took almost all filings and other documents offline for the duration of the shutdown, a much more draconian response than many federal agencies (CD Oct 3 p2).
Gibson Dunn hires Helgi Walker, ex-Wiley Rein, as partner, with focus on appellate, regulatory and complex litigation issues … Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez will lead a delegation of 13 U.S. company representatives on a cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection trade mission Sept. 29-Oct. 2 to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait … Allbritton Communications President and Politico CEO Fred Ryan to leave company later this year … NetNumber names Brad Boston to the board of the wireline and wireless signal routing and database service provider, as president and CEO … Dialogic network capacity firm hires Robert Dennerlein, ex-Raritan, as executive vice president-finance, and chief financial officer … Broadcast graphics automation system provider Bannister Lake Software hires Pete Challinger, ex-Pixel Power, as vice president-U.S. business development … Neohapsis mobile and cloud security service firm hires Patricia Wright, ex-Rapid7, as vice president-consulting services.
FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler is expected to arrive at the agency sometime later this year with an ambitious agenda, but the time he will have in office is limited and several issues loom which could take up much of his first year. Industry and FCC officials told us that then-Chairman Julius Genachowski did Wheeler no favors by staying into May rather than leaving after the end of Barack Obama’s first term as president. Several industry officials who have spoken with Wheeler said he has a big agenda, but is all too aware that he will have limited time as chairman.
The FCC faced tough questioning Monday as judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asked if the open Internet order afforded ISPs enough flexibility to escape being treated as common carriers. Judge David Tatel suggested FCC General Counsel Sean Lev had conflated the agency’s own theories, and not defending the rules as they are actually written. By the end of the two-hour oral argument in Verizon v. FCC, two of the three judges said they couldn’t see how the antidiscrimination provision of the net neutrality rules was anything other than an impermissible common carriage restriction.
Commerce Department Undersecretary of International Trade Administration Francisco Sanchez resigns … Samsung Telecommunications America hires Steve Merlis, ex-Wiley Rein, as senior counsel-federal affairs … Catapult Consultants hires cybersecurity expert John Kimmins, ex-Applied Communication Sciences, as chief technology officer of consulting firm … Irving Azoff named chairman and CEO of Azoff MSG Entertainment, formed by Madison Square Garden Co. and Azoff Music Management … Cox Communications promotes Kristine Faulkner to lead home security and smart home products, as vice president and general manager, home security and smart home … National Hispanic Media Coalition hires Brian Pacheco, ex-GLAAD, as social media and communications strategist … Scripps Networks Interactive’s John Lansing retiring as president, Scripps Networks division; Burton Jablin promoted to succeed him, and advanced to succeed Jablin as president-home category is Kathleen Finch … Bryan Burns, ex-ESPN, starts The Forward Direction Group, a Guilford, Conn.-based sports consulting firm.
Mignon Clyburn has been acting chairwoman of the FCC since May 20 and has had what most observers see as an active chairmanship. On Aug. 9, the commission approved on a 2-1 vote what Clyburn had made clear was a top priority -- an order addressing high rates for prison calling (CD Aug 12 p1), though the order has yet to be released three weeks later. The big question many FCC observers were asking last week is how much more Clyburn will try to take on, especially since it’s unclear how much longer she has as interim chair. Will her tenure be over shortly after the commission’s Sept. 26 meeting, or will she still be acting chairwoman in November? The scenarios require different approaches, FCC and industry officials agree.
Mobile privacy stakeholders expressed concerns about NTIA-facilitated discussions that spanned the last year and sought to develop a code of conduct on how app developers inform users of their privacy policies, during a Thursday meeting convened by the agency. Administrator Larry Strickling praised the process and its outcome, saying he “couldn’t be happier with the results” and described the group’s work as “a learning experience for all of us.” John Morris, NTIA director-Internet policy, described the process as an “extremely constructive and productive conversation."
The forthcoming Cybersecurity Framework being developed by critical infrastructure industries and the National Institute of Standards and Technology “complements, and does not replace, an organization’s existing business or cybersecurity risk management process and cybersecurity program,” said a discussion draft of the framework NIST released Wednesday night. The framework is instead meant to help an organization leverage its existing cybersecurity processes and identify areas to improve risk management, although organizations that lack a cybersecurity program can use the framework as a “reference when establishing one,” NIST said in the draft (http://1.usa.gov/154Zjp9).
Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth warned that the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee’s examination of spectrum sharing between commercial and federal users in the 1755-1850 MHz band leaves many questions unanswered. Comments by Furchtgott-Roth, a CSMAC member, were posted by NTIA this week, as CSMAC gears up for a major meeting next Wednesday to complete action on sharing reports that have been its focus for more than a year.
Northrop Grumman promotes Carol Erikson to vice president-engineering, Space Systems business … Texas Instruments elects Ron Kirk, ex-U.S. Trade Representative who now is at Gibson Dunn, to board, effective Sept. 19 … Lobbying registrations: Twenty-First Century Fox, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, effective April 1 … Sypris Electronics, Washington Alliance Group, effective April 30 … Arris Group, Wiley Rein, effective June 21 … Time Warner Cable, Capitol Counsel, effective July 1.