The Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing Tuesday for FCC nominees Deborah Tate and Michael Copps. Tate is a director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, which oversees telecommunications in that state. She also serves as chairman of the FCC’s Federal-State Joint Board on Advanced Telecommunications Services. She’s been nominated to fill the Republican opening left when former Chairman Michael Copps left the agency and Commissioner Kevin Martin was elevated to chairman by the president.
Copps, a Democrat, is currently an FCC commissioner and has been re-nominated for a second term.
Republican Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy left the agency last Friday.
If confirmed by the Senate, the addition of Tate would again leave the agency evenly split between two Republicans and two Democrats, the complement it has had since last March. Normally, the FCC has five commissioners, with the majority the same party as the president.