The grilling of Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, such as it was, was completed on 11/30/11, and the grillmasters at the Senate Commerce Committee are going to undertake the next step – a vote on whether to report their nominations to the full Senate favorably, on Thursday 12/8/11. Three other candidates for other jobs in other agencies are also on the agenda.
The time and location of the session has not yet been determined. But it is likely to be a formality, for the FCC candidates at least. Their passage through the Senate has been unanimously blessed by declarations of smooth sailing and the like.
There is the iceberg out there in the form of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who is in a dispute with the FCC over the release to him of documents in a matter unrelated to the nominations. It is expected that Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will try to make amends with Grassley one way or another to finish the job of steering Pai and Rosenworcel to the FCC.
The other items on the agenda are the nomination of Ms. Rebecca M. Blank, to be Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce; the reappointment of D. Leibowitz as a Member of the Federal Trade Commission; and the nomination of Ms. Maureen K. Ohlhausen, to be a new Member of the Federal Trade Commission
