Bush to Nominate Lawyer to FCC Seat

President Bush plans to nominate telecommunications lawyer Robert McDowell to fill the final empty Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said Friday.

McDowell, 42, is senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Comptel, a lobbying group for companies that primarily compete against phone carriers such as AT&T; Inc. and Verizon Communications.

His nomination would help break a logjam at the five-member agency, including on the issue of overhauling restrictions on media ownership. The FCC has been split with two Republicans and two Democrats for much of the last year.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin last year had to delay starting an examination of media ownership rules when he was unable to reach an agreement with the two Democrats. He has advocated relaxing a ban preventing a company from owning a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same market.

McDowell’s nomination would require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. He received backing last week from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican whose panel must approve the nomination.

If confirmed, McDowell would fill a seat that expires June 30, 2009, the White House said.

“We think it is good news for those hoping for media ownership liberalization, such as newspapers, as it means the process for revising those rules is now more likely to get started,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin said in a note.

Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times and KTLA-TV Channel 5, is one of the companies seeking to relax the rules.

Another top priority at the FCC is increasing the deployment of high-speed Internet, known as broadband.

McDowell worked on the 2000 Bush presidential campaign, as did the FCC chairman. He ran unsuccessfully for the Virginia state legislature in 2003.