President Barack Obama will nominate venture capitalist Tom Wheeler to head the FCC on Wednesday, a White House official told POLITICO.
Pending confirmation, the agency's soon-to-be senior Democrat, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, will serve as its acting leader, the official added.
Continue Reading Wheeler, 66, is a longtime Obama loyalist. During Obama's first presidential campaign, Wheeler and his wife, Carol, spent six weeks in Iowa where they worked the phones and knocked on doors for the candidate. Wheeler also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama's two presidential campaigns.
He told C-SPAN's Brian Lamb "the six weeks that I spent in Iowa are going to rank right up there as the best six weeks of my life."
The White House official said of the nomination: "Tom Wheeler is an experienced leader in the communications technology field who shares the President's commitment to protecting consumers, promoting innovation, enhancing competition and encouraging investment."
Wheeler will replace Democrat Julius Genachowski, who took over as chairman in 2009 and pushed the agency to look at telecommunications differently with broadband supplanting old technologies like broadcasting and telephone service.
Liberal groups and Sen. Jay Rockefeller pushed for a woman, with the West Virginia Democrat urging the White House to pick his former aide, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Rockefeller and 36 other senators penned a letter to the president March 22. The lawmakers emphasized that Rosenworcel's selection would help the White House "avoid possible delays created by other nominees and keep the agency moving forward."
That letter was followed by one from the tech policy corner and included many Obama supporters. They threw their support behind Wheeler.
"Tom has had an impressive career in the telecommunications and high-tech field that makes him eminently qualified for this position," the letter read.
Other liberal groups thought it was time for a woman in the post — and they expressed concerns about Wheeler's stint as a lobbyist for both the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and CTIA, the wireless industry trade group.
But some of those on the left were forgiving of Wheeler's lobbying past because he was representing what were then disruptive technologies fighting entrenched incumbent industries.
