Genachowski Confirmation As New FCC Chairman Official
Sworn In By Supreme Court Justice Souter; Could Announce Some Staffers Shortly
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 6/29/2009 2:48:51 PM EDT
It's official. Julius Genachowski is the newest chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
He was sworn in at 2:25 at the Supreme Court by Justice David Souter, according to an FCC spokesman, taking over from acting chairman Michael Copps, who remains on the FCC as a commissioner.
Genachowski is a former clerk of Souter's.
Because chairman Genachowski is finishing off the four years remaining in the term of Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, the latter is no longer a commissioner as of the swearing in.
Adelstein is awaiting a hearing on his new appointment as head of the USDA's Rural Utilities Service. He will likely stay in touch with the FCC since both RUS and the FCC are charged by Congress with helping roll out broadband service to the nation.
Upon his swearing in., Genachowski could being officially installing his staff, which is expected to happen very quickly with an FCC announcement of 10 or so Genachowski staffers as early as this afternoon.
His chief of staff is expected to be Ed Lazarus, partner at law firm Akin Gump, as anticipated by B&C in a blog posting back in May.
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