A Senate Busy Signal for FCC Nominees

Everyone seems to like and respect Julius Genachowski, President Obama's nominee to chair the Federal Communications Commission. So why is it taking so long to get him confirmed by the Senate? It is hard to find any pocket of opposition to his nomination. Instead, his confirmation seems to be slowed by the senate's desire to approve nominees for all four open spots on the commission—two for Democrats and two for Republicans—at once. The effect of the delay is that the commission is falling behind in dealing with a number of critical issues. Congress has charged the commission with creating a national broadband policy. The commission is also likely to look at how to reform the Universal Service Fund, which taxes long distance bills to subsidize phone service to poor people and those in rural areas. There are some other internecine battles about how money and market power is divided up among various telecom companies. The commission needs to make a new plan for what to do with a block of wireless spectrum, meant to help public service agencies, that was not sold in the auctions last year. And it has to rule on the proposed merger between Embarq and CenturyTel.