Genachowski May be in Line for FCC Chair

An announcement could come as soon as today that President-elect Obama will name Julius Genachowski chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski, who attended law school at Harvard with Obama and spearheaded the president-elect's technology and innovation agenda, was widely seen a leading contender for the positions of Chief Technology Officier or FCC Chair. Many telecom industry leaders and regulators said they believed Genachowski had first pick on any of the roles in Obama's administration that would oversee technology policy. Sources close to transition officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Genachowski had been recently meeting with key Democratic lawmakers to see if the role of CTO would have policy-making authority and decided against taking the job when he realized the definition of CTO would not include a strong regulatory role. Instead, Genachowski expressed interest in the FCC post. He previously served as chief counsel to former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.