FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel has announced her intent to depart the agency in January, timed to coincide with the appointment of her successor, incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
In a statement released on Thursday, Rosenworcel said serving as the Chair of the FCC “has been the honor of a lifetime, especially my tenure as Chair and as the first woman in history to be confirmed to lead this agency.”
“I want to thank President Biden for entrusting me with the responsibility to guide the FCC during a time when communications technology is a part of every aspect of civic and commercial life,” Rosenworcel said. “Taking the oath of office on the street outside of the agency during the height of the pandemic, when so much of our day-to-day moved online, made clear how important the work of the FCC is and how essential it is for us to build a digital future that works for everyone.”
With Rosenworcel’s departure, the FCC is set to operate under a Republican majority, following Carr’s appointment as Chair and the forthcoming nomination of a new FCC commissioner by President-elect Donald Trump shortly after he takes office.
Rosenworcel’s time at the FCC started about as controversially as it ended. She was first nominated by then-President Barack Obama in October 2011, but her nomination was held up in the U.S. Senate until Republican Senator Chuck Grassley was able to convince the FCC to release documents on a broadband project called LightSquared, which he supported.
She was ultimately sworn into office in mid-2012 for a term that was set to end on June 30, 2015. She was renominated by then-President Trump in 2017 to serve another five-year term, which was set to expire next June. President Biden appointed her to serve as the Chair of the FCC upon taking office in 2021.
Her time as the leader of the agency will likely be remembered as one that involved an aggressive pro-consumer agenda, often to the detriment of commercial industries.
Under her watch, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau imposed millions of dollars in fines against pirate radio operators who took to the airwaves without a license and broadcasters who employed underhanded tactics during carriage disputes with cable platforms. She spearheaded initiatives that were intended to reign in programming-related disputes on pay TV platforms, curb the use of hidden fees by cable and satellite companies and restore network neutrality rules that mandate Internet service providers treat all web traffic in a fair and even manner.
It was not all smooth sailing at the FCC under Rosenworecl’s watch. Her agency failed to meet key deadlines imposed by Congress for quadrennial reviews of media ownership rules. The Media Bureau took months to act on an application filed by a Nexstar-affiliated business for the acquisition of a broadcast license in Detroit, which ultimately caused the deal to fall apart. And the FCC still has yet to approve a routine application to renew the license of a Fox-owned TV station in Philadelphia, following objections from a grassroots organization that sought to delay the process because of material aired on a cable news channel.
Carr has been one of the most-vocal opponents of various measures backed by Rosenworcel, often claiming they don’t fall within the regulatory purview of the agency (which itself has been upended following the controversial Supreme Court decision earlier this year that effectively overturned the Chevron doctrine). Under his command, broadcasters and those in the telecommunications industry believe they’ll have an easier time getting various media ownership, distribution and network neutrality reforms through in the coming months and years.
