Report: New FCC Nominees Expected To Be...

President Donald Trump could soon fill the two open slots at the Federal Communications Commission, by tapping Brendan Carr, an aide to the FCC’s current Republican chairman, and Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who previously served at the agency.

Brendan Carr

At the moment, those two seasoned telecom policy experts are seen as the front-runners to fill the remaining seats at the five-member FCC, according to ReCode.net.

The positions are the subject of much speculation in the nation’s capital because the FCC is well under way with its work to scrap the government’s net neutrality rules, put in place under the watch of former President Barack Obama, and rethink the country’s media ownership laws.

Carr, for his part, is currently the general counsel to Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. If elevated to commissioner, Carr could become a major, new legal ally to his soon-to-be-former boss.

Jessica Rosenworcel

Multiple sources told Recode they believe that Pai actually recommended Carr, who joined Pai’s staff in 2014, for the open Republican job at the FCC. Politically, though, Carr could face criticism from some Democrats and left-leaning consumer groups because of his business background.

Before arriving at the FCC as an attorney in 2012, he worked as a lawyer at the D.C. law firm Wiley Rein and represented telecom companies like AT&T, Verizon and two of their main trade associations, USTelecom and the wireless-focused lobbying group, CTIA.

Rosenworcel, meanwhile, could soon return to an agency she knows well. The Democrat served as a commissioner at the FCC under former President Barack Obama beginning in 2012, and Rosenworcel only left the agency at the end of last year because the Senate ran out of time to extend her term.

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