[IP] A 2-1 FCC?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 21, 2005 10:34:27 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] A 2-1 FCC?
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
A 2-1 FCC?
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Because he has some problems with the current version of
the E911 bill, Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has put a hold on the bill,
preventing a vote on it. Because he's a supporter of the E911 bill,
Sen John Sununu (R-NH) retaliated by putting a hold on the nomination
of Michael Copps for another term as FCC Commissioner. Because Copps'
nomination is a "package deal" with Republican FCC nominee Deborah
Tate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) retaliated with a hold
on Tate's nomination. Ah, could we try a little holiday cheer,
gentlemen? Commissioner Copps can continue (despite the fact that
his term expired) until the current Congress adjourns at the end of
2006. So the five-member FCC is now 2 Democrats and one Republican.
Since the one Republican is the Chairman and controls the agenda, big
ticket items with real divergences are not coming up for vote. That
means no major business will get done until Tate is confirmed and has
a chance to come up to speed. The biggest losers in this are big
media companies, especially Comcast, Time Warner and Adelphia. All
the big media companies have been waiting for a majority of
Republicans so they can try again to relax the media ownership rules.
But the ones who most urgently need an FCC majority (or at least a
2-2 split) are Comcast and Time Warner. There is no way their merger
can move forward without Republicans. Given how the Democrats
negotiated for conditions on the Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T mergers,
Comcast and Time Warner really want a solid Republican majority if
they have any hope of avoiding major conditions. They also have
pressure to get this deal done quickly, as the longer it remains
pending, the longer investors and Adelphia's bankruptcy creditors
have to get cold feet. It is now entirely possible that the Senate
will adjourn without voting on Tate and Copps. When they return, they
will not only face any leftover legislative business from this
session, but the highly anticipated, extremely partisan, knock-down
drag-out Alito Confirmation Smackdown. Unbelievably, it becomes
possible to imagine the Tate-Copps package held up until February.
<http://www.wetmachine.com//item/399>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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