President Obama has nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Varadaraj Pai to become commissioners at the FCC.
Rosenworcel is a senior communications counsel for the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology, and has worked for the Democrat…
President Obama has nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Varadaraj Pai to become commissioners at the FCC.
Rosenworcel is a senior communications counsel for the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology, and has worked for the Democrat senator Jay Rockefeller since 2009.
Pai is currently a partner in the litigation department of law firm Jenner & Block LLP. Among his previous roles, he has served in the Office of the General Counsel at the FCC and as a chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights.
The FCC is directed by five commission members. No more than three of those members are allowed to come from one of the political parties.
Rosenworcel would take on a Democrat slot that will soon be vacated by Commissioner Michael Copps.
Pai would fill an empty Republican slot, which was vacated earlier this year by Meredith Attwell Baker.
This will leave the Commission with two Republicans and three Democrats, including its chairman, Julius Genachowski.
The Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and then the Senate itself will have to approve these nominations before Rosenworcel and Pai can be sworn into office.