Grassley ‘Hoping’ to Release His Hold on FCC Nominees After Recess
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the FCC is “finally acting in good faith,” and he’s “hoping” that he will be able to release his hold on the confirmation process for FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel the week after the Senate returns from its April 30-May 4 recess. His comments came in an interview Thursday. Grassley’s comments indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid., D-Nev., could notify the Senate in the second week of May by “hotline” that he intends to schedule a vote on the FCC nominees. The nominees would then likely go through as long as no other senator issues a hold.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"I'm hoping that the first week after we get back we can move,” Grassley told us. “It seems like finally there is an effort to be made in good faith."
Early this week Grassley’s office confirmed that the FCC sent a batch of approximately 5,900 FCC documents related to the commission’s decision-making on LightSquared to House Commerce Committee Republicans (CD April 35 p1). He had previously complained that the commission didn’t provide all the documents he requested in the agency’s initial delivery to the committee, and continues to block votes on the nominees until he gets the rest of the documents.
"I suppose 80 to 90 percent are still newspaper clips, news releases, even blank pages, something that wasn’t worth anything,” Grassley told us. “But before we got through the 6,000 [documents] we did get some things that we have been looking for. I can’t give you analysis of the value of those things but they are definitely finally getting some things that we are looking for,” Grassley told us. “I'm led to believe we are going to get the rest of the 19,000 [documents] so I think finally somebody got to them and said ‘you know you ought to do this.'"
The Senate was moving closer to approving the nominations Thursday, as it headed into a break expected to start late in the day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were in discussions about an agreement on nominations, to include the two FCC nominees, industry officials said. Industry and government officials expect the Senate to re-engage on nominations right after the break, with a vote looking increasingly likely before Memorial Day and the next congressional recess.