FCC chairman moves to end AT&T; impasse
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission moved Friday to break an impasse over approval of AT&T; Inc.’s purchase of BellSouth Corp. by trying to force a commissioner who recused himself to cast the tie-breaking vote.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Chairman Kevin J. Martin said he had asked the FCC’s general counsel to review Commissioner Robert M. McDowell’s recusal. A fellow Republican, McDowell has declined to participate in the review of the deal because he had worked for a trade association of smaller phone companies that opposes the roughly $80-billion merger.
With McDowell on the sideline, the commission has been split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Martin said he wanted the FCC to approve the deal unconditionally, and Republican Deborah Taylor Tate was expected to back him.
But upset that the Justice Department gave unconditional approval to the deal in October, the two Democratic commissioners, Michael J. Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein, have pressed for the FCC to impose strong conditions. They are concerned about the clout that would be created by the merger. A more muscular AT&T; would dominate the market in California and 21 other states.
Among the sticking points are requirements that the Democrats would like to impose to prevent AT&T; from charging some websites for higher-speed delivery of their content, an issue known as network neutrality.
Negotiations have been going on for seven weeks and Martin has postponed scheduled votes three times. With another commission meeting set for Dec. 20 and AT&T; and BellSouth pushing for approval before the end of the year, Martin is trying to bring McDowell into the process.
“Given the commission’s inability to reach consensus on this matter, I have asked the general counsel to consider whether the government’s interest would be served by permitting Commissioner McDowell ... to participate,” Martin wrote.
Martin also could be motivated to secure approval of the deal before Democrats take control of Congress in January. Some Democrats, including the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate commerce committees, have been critical of large industry mergers and could hold hearings on the deal.
McDowell said he had received a copy of the letter. “I look forward to receiving the general counsel’s analysis regarding my potential participation,” he said.
AT&T; has been frustrated by the delays, but did not comment directly on Martin’s move.
“We’ve been at this for a long time,” said Jim Cicconi, AT&T;’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs. “It’s unfortunate, but after months of intense effort on our part, we remain at an impasse.”
Before joining the FCC in June, McDowell served as senior vice president and assistant general counsel for Comptel, an association of small phone companies and suppliers. Federal law calls for government employees to recuse themselves whenever “a reasonable person” might question impartiality. The law specifically refers to conflicts involving companies for which a federal employee has worked within the last year.
But the law allows those conflict-of-interest concerns to be overridden if they are outweighed by the government’s interest in resolving a deadlock.
