Policymakers

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced that Jamie Susskind has joined his office as Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor for wireline issues. Susskind joins Commissioner Carr’s office from the United States Senate, where she served as Chief Counsel to Sen Deb Fischer (R-NE). In that role, Susskind managed the Senator’s priorities on the Senate Commerce Committee, as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Prior to joining Senator Fischer’s office, Susskind was detailed from the FCC to serve as Counsel to the Senate Communications Subcommittee. Previously, Susskind worked in the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where she held various roles, including Legal Advisor to the Bureau Chief and Acting Assistant Division Chief of the Pricing Policy Division. Earlier in her career, Susskind was a Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Mary J. Schoelen on the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She graduated from the Antonin Scalia Law School and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. Commissioner Carr also announced that Nathan Eagan, who has been serving as Acting Legal Advisor for wireline issues while on detail from the Wireline Competition Bureau, will be rejoining the Bureau.

The arc of Anthony Scaramucci’s career is long and strange, and lately it has bent toward ignominy. After being fired by President Donald Trump, sued for divorce and turned into a late-night piñata for his foul-mouthed speaking habits, Scaramucci is trying to mount a comeback with a media venture he is calling The Scaramucci Post.

So far, the project’s contours are vague. “It’s going to start out experiential on the net,” Scaramucci, an American flag pinned to his lapel, said during a launch party at the Hunt & Fish Club on West 44th Street. He was invited to elaborate. “We’re going to create traffic and content and an experience using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,” Scaramucci said. (The @ScaramucciPost Twitter account, with its caveat that “Follows ≠ Job Offers,” has been something of a mystery in political circles.) The publication is so devoted to its social media strategy that it has no journalists, no articles and no website — apparently by design. “You’ll find that if you don’t have a website, guess what? You don’t have any server charges,” Scaramucci said. Later, he conceded that he had “no idea what the Scaramucci Post is.”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's use of her Twitter account violated a federal law that bars federal employees from using their offices for political purposes, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Oct 3. In a letter to the watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), the deputy chief of OSC's Hatch Act Unit said that Haley was in clear violation of the Hatch Act when she retweeted the president's endorsement of Ralph Norman, who was running for a South Carolina House seat at the time. Norman went on to win the election. The retweet suggested that she was acting in her official capacity when she appeared to second the president's endorsement, according to the OSC.

As expected, the Senate formally confirmed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for a new, five-year term in a largely party-line 52-41 vote. But Chairman Pai did win votes from four of the six Democrats who voted in favor of the procedural vote on his confirmation: Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Jon Tester (D-MT). (Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper, both Delaware Democrats, had voted to proceed to Pai’s reconfirmation vote but ultimately rejected his renomination.)

So why did these four buck Democratic colleagues? “I disagree with him on net neutrality, but the president has a right to the chairman because he won the election,” said Sen McCaskill. “I have worked with him closely on the Lifeline issues and found him to be easy to work with on those issues — and he’s qualified.” Sen Peters echoed her on Pai’s qualifications and also cited his interest in working with Chairman Pai to address the Lifeline program. The senators like his broadband views. “I just need a lot of help in West Virginia, and he’s been moving in that direction,” Sen Manchin said, lauding Pai’s work in “trying to get the rural broadband fund moving.” Chairman Pai is “working with us,” Sen Manchin said. Sen Peters also mentioned rural broadband, singling out Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as an area in need: “I found him very receptive to ways to expand broadband access.” But like Sen McCaskill, Sen Manchin is “still very concerned about net neutrality,” as is Sen Peters. Pai’s move to roll back net neutrality regulations dominated the Democrats’ opposition on the floor. Sen Peters said he “will hold him accountable” and try to ensure “the internet is free and open.”

Barry Lynn has been pushing the government to crack down on corporate power for 16 years, but his ideas never received as much attention as when they cost him his job at a Google-sponsored think tank. After parting ways with New America over the summer, Lynn has launched a new independent group to raise awareness about the threats posed by corporate giants. Lawmakers are increasingly willing to confront tech leaders on a growing list of issues, and Lynn’s transition comes as authorities are investigating whether Russians used Google, Facebook and Twitter to sow division during 2016’s election. “I think people are understanding just how poorly structured these institutions are, how sloppily they were built,” Lynn said. “It’s not just a matter of the fact that these people have too much power, it’s also that they are sloppy in the use of their power.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his appointment of Eric Burger to serve as the agency’s Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Burger will advise Chairman Pai and the agency on technology and engineering issues, together with the Office of Engineering and Technology. Prior to joining the Commission, Dr. Burger served as director of the Security and Software Engineering Research Center in Washington, DC. The center helps propose solutions to network problems like robocalling, rural call completion, accessibility of communications for Americans with hearing and speech impairments, reducing the cost of deploying and operating communications networks, and ensuring communication network security and stability. He holds patents in telecommunications and is an expert in standards for telecommunications, network, and Internet technologies.

Dr. Burger has also held senior engineering and technology positions in various telecommunications companies and served as a technology consultant to others. He has also taught computer science at Georgetown University, George Mason University, and The George Washington University. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a major Washington (DC) technology trade association which represents the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple, is ramping up its focus in Europe as the continent increases its grip on technology companies. The ITI will announce its hiring of Guido Lobrano to launch a permanent European policy outpost. Lobrano will serve as the trade association’s senior director of global policy in Europe.

Lobrano will be based in Brussels, the unofficial capital of the European Union. Though the EU has no official capital Brussels holds the seats of European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as one of the most important seats in the European Parliament. “The reason for the hire is reflective for broader changes that are taking place. The world is becoming increasingly horizontal,” says ITI President and CEO Dean Garfield. “It is becoming more global and integrated, in spite of what you hear in the political domain in the US.”

[Commentary] The week of Oct 2, the Senate has a chance to make a profound difference for the 2.7 million children whose parents are incarcerated. Headlines covered victory after victory as the Federal Communications Commission woke from a 10-year sleep and began adopting rules to protect consumers from paying $17 for a 15-minute phone call to jail and eye-popping fees imposed on families when they deposit money to pay for calls. One federal appointee has changed all that — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — and his confirmation vote is expected Oct 2.

Senators who believe in leaders that follow the rules, act according to their conscience, put low-income people and children first, and who protect the First Amendment above all else should vote against Chairman Pai. Speak out now and call your senator to oppose Chairman Pai’s confirmation.

[Cheryl Leanza is the policy adviser for the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communication, Inc.]

The Senate as expected voted to invoke cloture (limit debate) on the renomination of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to a new, five-year term on the FCC retroactive to the end of his term, which was June 2016 (commissioners can serve through the end of the next Congress, which is the end of 2017).

The vote was 55 to 40 along primarily partisan lines and followed Democratic Sens calling for the "firing" of Pai and Republicans saying the FCC was in good hands under Pai's stewardship. The vote means the Senate can proceed to a vote on the underlying nomination. An earlier vote was blocked by Democrats. That vote is expected by Oct 2 and will almost certainly result in a new term for the chairman.