Policymakers

A second member has quit the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, also suggesting it has been carrying water for industry rather than drawing on a well of other sources to grow broadband deployment. Miguel Gamiño Jr., CTO of the New York City, said in a letter to FCC chairman Ajit Pai that after participating in 100 hours worth of calls, attending one all-day meeting in D.C.

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced the appointments of Neşe Guendelsberger as wireline legal advisor and Michael Scurato as media legal advisor, as well as the departures of J. David Grossman, the Commissioner’s Chief of Staff and Claude Aiken, the Commissioner’s wireline legal advisor.

President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key position in his Administration: Rebecca Kelly Slaughter of Maryland, to be a Member of the Federal Trade Commission for the remainder of a seven-year term expiring September 25, 2022. Slaughter is currently chief counsel to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY).  A native New Yorker, she has worked for Minority Leader Schumer since 2009, advising him on legal, competition, telecom, privacy, consumer protection, and intellectual property matters, among other issues.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission's Republican members to register their serious concerns about those members appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Feb. “Your willingness to attend and help promote a political rally raises serious concerns about your roles as leaders of an independent federal agency, and the potential of taxpayer dollars being spent towards political ends,” the Ranking Members wrote. They said they are look

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announces the appointment of members to serve on three working groups of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (ACDDE). These working groups -- Broadcast Diversity and Development, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector -- will assist the ACDDE in carrying out its work. As previously announced, Chairman Pai has designated Julia Johnson, President, NetCommunications, LLC, to serve as Chair of the ACDDE, and Diane Sutter, President/CEO, ShootingStar Broadcasting, to serve as Vice Chair.

The political action committee founded by John R. Bolton, President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, was one of the earliest customers of Cambridge Analytica, which it hired specifically to develop psychological profiles of voters with data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook profiles, according to former Cambridge employees and company documents. Bolton’s political committee, known as The John Bolton Super PAC, first hired Cambridge in August 2014, months after the political data firm was founded and while it was still harvesting the Facebook data.

The television pundit Larry Kudlow, best known for his patter on CNBC, was named as President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser. Pete Hegseth, a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” is on the short list to become secretary of veterans affairs. John R.

Rep Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), a folksy New York liberal who championed women’s rights and American manufacturing for more than three decades as a Democratic congresswoman, and who became a top lieutenant for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the first and only woman to lead the powerful Rules Committee, died March 16 at a hospital in Washington. She was 88 and the oldest sitting member of Congress. Initially one of just 29 women in the House of Representatives, Rep Slaughter was a flinty advocate of women’s access to health care and abortion.

Apparently, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia. The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

More than a year after entering the White House, President Donald Trump still has not selected his top science and technology adviser, leaving unfilled a critical policy post that guides the administration on issues as varied as artificial intelligence,  climate change and cancer research.