FCC official cleared to vote on AT&T; deal
The Federal Communications Commission’s general counsel Friday authorized a commissioner with a potential conflict of interest to break a deadlock over AT&T; Inc.’s purchase of BellSouth Corp.
The commissioner, Republican Robert M. McDowell, said he was reviewing the eight-page legal opinion. In the meantime, he urged the four other commissioners to resolve their differences on the $84-billion phone company deal.
The decision by FCC General Counsel Samuel Feder allows McDowell to vote on the deal but doesn’t require him to do so.
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is pushing for unconditional approval of the deal by the end of the year, but he has been stymied by McDowell’s decision to sit out the proceedings. McDowell has said he is barred by federal ethics laws from voting on the matter because he has worked within the last year for Comptel, an association of smaller phone companies that opposes the deal.
Despite McDowell’s former job, AT&T; and BellSouth told the FCC this week that they had no problem with him voting on their union.
Without McDowell, the FCC is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. It has become deadlocked over contentious issues, including whether to prohibit the new, bigger AT&T; from charging websites for higher-speed delivery of their content, an issue known as network neutrality.
Last week, Martin asked Feder to consider whether McDowell could participate, a move that angered some congressional Democrats.
Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who will head House panels that oversee the FCC starting next month, wrote to Feder this week asking 15 detailed and pointed questions about Martin’s move to bring in McDowell. McDowell said Friday that he was looking forward to seeing the responses.
