FCC Chair Powell to Step Down
According to this morning's WSJ, controversial FCC Chair Michael Powell is going to surprise folks by stepping down today:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell plans to resign today, ending what's often been a controversial tenure as he tried to push the telecom and media industries into an increasingly deregulated world that some lawmakers, companies and consumer groups didn't like.There is no truth, apparently, to rumors that Powell pere and fils will now be touring the country as a juggling act. 1The news came as somewhat of a surprise, just one day after President Bush's inauguration and with some very hefty issues yet to be dealt with by the FCC including how to treat burgeoning Internet phone services as well as how to overhaul the Universal Service Fund, a federal subsidy program under financial pressure.
Rumors have circulated for months that Mr. Powell, who has been on the FCC since President Clinton appointed him as a commissioner seven years ago, would step down, but recent conventional wisdom had him leaving in the spring after at least some of these issues were dealt with.