Martin Seeks to Unleash McDowell
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/3/2006 5:15:00 PM
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin formally began the process that could prompt commissioner Robert McDowell to break the agency's deadlock over AT&T's $81 billion merger with BellSouth, which has been stalled for several weeks.
In a letter Friday to four Capitol Hill lawmakers who oversee the commission, Martin disclosed that he asked the agency's general counsel to determine whether its need to wrap up its review would outweigh McDowell's conflict-of-interest justifications for refusing to vote on the deal.
McDowell's participation would return the five-member agency to full voting strength. Without McDowell, the FCC has been split 2-2 between Republicans and Democrats and their partisan difference on the deal have induced paralysis.
"The [FCC] has reached an impasse," Martin said in the two-page letter.
Martin's letter suggested that although FCC general counsel Sam Feder could "authorize" McDowell to vote, McDowell was not compelled to do so. McDowell, in a statement, didn't indicate a course of action he had in mind.
“This evening, I received a copy of chairman Martin’s letter to congressional leaders regarding the status of the AT&T-BellSouth merger proceeding. I look forward to receiving the general counsel’s analysis regarding my potential participation," McDowell said.
McDowell, who joined the FCC in June, hasn't been staying on the sidelines because he owns shares of AT&T or BellSouth. Rather, he felt he should not vote because his last job in the private sector was senior vice president and assistant general counsel of COMPTEL, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that has opposed the AT&T-BellSouth combination.
Martin's letter cited one precedent, involving former FCC chairman William Kennard, which broke a 2-2 deadlock in September 2000 after the general counsel gave Kennard, a Democrat, approval to vote.
Martin sent the letter to Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and the panel's ranking and incoming chairman, Daniel Inouye (Hawaii); and to House Energy and Commerce chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and the panel's ranking Democrat and incoming chairman, John Dingell (Michigan). The other recipients were House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.). Markey is slated to take Upton's post in January.
