FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pushing a packed agenda

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is determined to move the typically slow-moving agency into higher gear. He has a lot on his agenda.

Among the major issues are deciding whether to allow Comcast to purchase Time Warner Cable, drafting new network neutrality rules governing how Internet providers run their networks, revising media ownership regulations and trying to persuade broadcasters to auction off some of their airwaves to allow for expanded wireless services. Chairman Wheeler said he's at the FCC to make things happen. "Of course there's risk in taking action. How many football coaches say, 'Oh, I wish we hadn't thrown that pass?'" said Chairman Wheeler. "But the fact of the matter is that your goal and your responsibility is to move things forward." Chairman Wheeler is decisive and self-assured, qualities he'll have to use carefully to find consensus on a five-member commission that often has been fractious, even downright dysfunctional. "He is going to be willing to make some people unhappy, and maybe it's going to be me," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest advocate at Georgetown University's Institute for Public Representation. "But he's going to be moving things forward." And he seems intent on carving out his own legacy.