Radio & Television Business Report

Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has been nominated to a second term on the Commission, and her Senate confirmation hearing has now been put on the calendar.

The Senate Commerce Committee will consider a slate of six nominees for various posts on Tuesday 12/4/12 at 2:30 PM. Clyburn is among them.

If the committee passes on the nomination, the next step is confirmation by the full Senate.
On the 12/4/12 slate:

* Ms. Mignon L. Clyburn, to be a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (reappointment)

* Dr. Mark Doms, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce

* Ms. Polly Ellen Trottenberg, to be Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, Department of Transportation

* Dr. Joshua D. Wright, to be a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission

* Mr. Christopher R. Beall, to be a Director on the Amtrak Board of Directors

* Ms. Yvonne B. Burke, to be a Director on the Amtrak Board of Directors

RBR-TVBR observation: We expect this to go through without any trouble whatsoever. We’ve seen FCC nominees held up before, but never on the merits – it’s always happened when some senator was in a snit about a totally unrelated matter and held up a nominee in the hope of gaining leverage. That could possibly happen again, but we don’t think it will, especially since Clyburn’s renomination is folded into a package with five other nominees.

No matter how contentious it has gotten between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, they have always respected each other’s FCC picks as long as we’ve been watching, so as long as this doesn’t turn into a side show of some other issue, Clyburn should sail through this hearing.