4:45 PM ET -- Meredith Attwell Baker has tapped Karl Nebbia to succeed her as acting NTIA administrator, responsible for the DTV-to-analog coupon-box program.
He is currently the associate administrator for NTIA's office of spectrum management, which oversees federal spectrum use by everybody from the Post Office to the Department of Defense.
Bernadette McGuire-Rivera remains the associate administrator, directly overseeing the coupon program.
Baker is currently scheduled to exit at noon, Jan. 20, per the traditional request that all political appointees submit their resignations by then.
An Obama transition team spokeswoman had no comment on whether they would appoint their own acting administrator to replace Nebbia. NTIA is under the Commerce Department, which like NTIA is currently without a successor to Secretary Carlos Gutierrez after former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson took his name out of the running.
Last week, the President-elect asked Congress to move the DTV transition date, noting the stoppage/slow-down of NTIA's distribution of DTV-to-analog converter-box coupons. NTIA has pointed out that it gave Congress a heads-up back in November that the program might run into a distribution problem due to an accounting issue that capped distribution funds even before the program technically ran out of money.
