FCC Inches Closer to Full Strength as Adelstein Hearing Set
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 15, 2002--The FCC is closer to once again having a full complement of commissioners on board as the White House has forwarded the nomination of Jonathan S. Adelstein to the US Senate for confirmation. Sen Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has announced that the full committee will hold a hearing on Adelstein's nomination Tuesday, July 16. Sen Daniel Inouye of Hawaii will preside.
President George W. Bush in February announced his intention to name Adelstein, a Democrat, to fill the remaining vacancy on the regulatory panel. The nomination, which subsequently became embroiled in political wrangling, now appears to be on a fast track.
Earlier this year, Senate Republicans were vowing to block the nomination of Adelstein, a longtime aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, after Senate Democrats rejected Bush's nomination of Charles Pickering to the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals. FCC appointments traditionally are divided along party lines, with the party holding the White House getting three of the five seats. After a March vote by the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Pickering, however, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi--a close friend of Pickering's--announced that he would kill the Adelstein FCC nomination. Daschle, who recommended Adelstein for the job, had warned that any efforts to block the Adelstein nomination could backfire.
The White House formally submitted Adelstein's nomination to the Senate for confirmation on July 10. Adelstein would fill the remainder of a five-year term that expires next June 30.
A former telecommunications aide to Daschle, Adelstein, 39, is from Rapid City, South Dakota. "Having someone like Adelstein on the Commission means that rural America will not get left out of the discussion," the South Dakota Telecommunications Association said in a statement applauding the nomination. If confirmed, Adelstein would be the first South Dakotan ever to serve on the FCC.
Before joining Sen Daschle's staff, Adelstein served on the staffs of senators David Pryor and Donald Riegle. According to a White House statement, Adelstein has been a teaching fellow in Harvard College's Department of History and a communications consultant to Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Adelstein holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University. He's also completed graduate-level work in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Page last modified: 02:41 PM, 19 Jul 2002 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
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