Rockefeller Still Targeting June for Wheeler Hearing

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According to a committee source, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) is targeting June for a nomination hearing for Tom Wheeler as the next FCC chair.

Rockefeller chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which will have to approve the nomination before it gets a floor vote.

The president has yet to nominate a Republican, and Wheeler almost certainly would not get a full-Senate vote until he was paired with a Republican to replace Rob McDowell. But the committee does not necessarily pair nominees for a committee vote unless, as was the case with Rosenworcel and Pai, they were nominated at about the same time.

"We're not going to wait months for the Republicans," the source said.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.